Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division, it is the largest theme park in the world, covering 580 acres (230 ha).

The park is dedicated and themed around natural environment and animal conservation, a philosophy once pioneered by Walt Disney.

[12] Animal Kingdom was the brainchild of Imagineer Joe Rohde, who had previously designed the Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island.

[13] When presenting the idea of the new animal-themed park, Rohde brought a 400-pound (180 kg) Bengal tiger into the meeting with Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

In July 1996, construction was underway on the animal holding facilities, the installation of trees, shrubs, and grasses to shape the park's African Savanna-inspired landscape.

[14] Parts of the park were designed to have an aged appearance, with artificial potholes in the safari roads and boats peppered with dents and rust.

[14] Most of the park's animals were acquired in 1997 during the fall; they were held at a rented holding facility in northern Florida for quarantine and observation.

ABC aired a two-hour prime time special about the making of Animal Kingdom, as part of its The Wonderful World of Disney anthology series.

[18] In 2011, Disney announced a major expansion to the park, Pandora - The World of Avatar, a joint venture with director James Cameron and his production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, with the intention of transforming Animal Kingdom into a full-day operation with added attraction capacity and nighttime experiences.

show would be replaced by the new show Zootopia: Better Zoogether in the Tree of Life Theater, opening in the winter of 2025, and DinoLand U.S.A. would be replaced by a new Tropical Americas land, set in the fictional town of Pueblo Esperanza, featuring Encanto and Indiana Jones-themed attractions with completion expected by 2027.

The main paths feature animal exhibits and dense vegetation and trees lead deeper into the park and then onto Discovery Island.

It was originally called Safari Village, as Discovery Island was the name for the small zoological park located in Walt Disney World's Bay Lake but was renamed after that area, which closed in 1999.

The village is the namesake of the Harambe Wildlife Preserve, the fictional home of the area's main attraction, Kilimanjaro Safaris.

The safari features the okapi, greater kudu, saddle-billed stork, bongo, black and southern white rhinoceros, hippopotamus, pink-backed pelican, Nile crocodile, Masai giraffe, blue wildebeest, springbok, Ankole cattle, common eland, sable antelope, and African bush elephant.

On the adjacent Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, visitors trek into the forest to see animals such as the Western lowland gorilla, black-and-white colobus monkey, okapi, gerenuk, yellow-backed duiker, pygmy hippopotamus, Grévy's zebra, South African meerkat, Kenyan sand boa, kori bustard, naked mole-rat, tarantulas, and, as well as an aviary.

Guests board the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge Wildlife Express Train for the short trip to and from the area, which consists of three sub-areas.

Outside, Affection Section is a petting zoo featuring goats, sheep, cattle, domestic pigs, donkeys, and alpacas.

[38][39] Asia, set in the fictional kingdom of Anandapur, evokes the traits of Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand and Tibet.

The visual focal point of Asia is Expedition Everest, a steel roller coaster ride through a forbidden Himalayan mountain guarded by the elusive Yeti.

The Maharajah Jungle Trek leads guests through the forests and ruins outside the village, which are home to species such as the Javan banteng, bar-headed goose, Sumatran tiger, Indian blackbuck, Eld's deer, white-handed gibbon, Indian flying fox, Komodo dragon and over 50 bird species.

DinoLand U.S.A. is set in the fictional American rural locale of Diggs County and is themed around dinosaurs and other extinct prehistoric life.

The area is anchored by the Dino Institute, a palaeontological facility which is home to Dinosaur, a dark thrill ride loosely inspired by the film of the same name, featuring a trip through time to the Late Cretaceous.

The animals, such as the American crocodile, red legged seriemas, Abdim's stork and Asian brown tortoise, have evolutionary links to the age of the dinosaurs.

During the final stages of planning of development, Eisner decided that either Beastly Kingdom or DinoLand U.S.A. would be built first because of budget cuts after the failure of Euro Disney (known today as Disneyland Paris) and the higher cost of the upkeep and care of the animals at the park.

[56] Disney responded to the report by hiring additional security to prevent animals from fighting, relocating the crowned cranes to walking paths, as well as adding mirrors to the safari vehicles.

"[58] In October 2014, a snake dropped out of a tree and bit a boy, precipitating the death of his great-grandmother who suffered a cardiac arrest as a reaction to the incident.