Walkabout The World - A Disney Podcast - Disney's Animal Kingdom Walkabout with Host Josh

Episode Date: January 18, 2026

Hello Travelers! This week, join host Producer Josh as he takes you on a walkabout through Disney's Animal Kingdom. Walk toward Harambe Africa where you'll hear a cheerful performance from Burudika before enjoying highlights from a ride on Kilamanjaro Safaris. Then take in the sounds and ambience of traveling through Anandapur in Asia and into the construction wall-filled Dinoland USA in its final weeks.    Walkabout the World is now on TikTok! Come follow our visual companion to the audio podcast at Walkabout.the.world.pod on TikTok   Look us up at @WalkaboutWDW on Instagram and drop us a note to say hi.   Visit us at walkabouttheworld.com - find links to all the things - attraction episodes, Insta accounts of all the hosts, and even how to buy your own Walkabout shirt!    

Hello, travelers, welcome back to Walk About the World. My name is Josh, and I'm your host for this week's Walkabout. You know what, before we get going, since it is a new season, we might have some new listeners. So let me tell you a little bit about who we are. Question, what's a walkabout? Answer, essentially, what we do here on Walk About the World is a walk and talk around the parks and resorts of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, which is everything from ambient sounds, descriptive narration, meandering thoughts and observations, all of which we record live inside the parks and resorts. Every experience is kind of

like just coming to a park with your friends. We've been doing this since 2021. This is our fifth season, and we've loved every minute of it. And we hope you have too. We've met a lot of great people throughout our journey we like to travel with us and we hope that we can meet a whole lot more in the coming year so you know where we are just by listening we're at animal kingdom today pause for a cart going by hey and that's that's exactly it that is that is part of it i'm not editing that out that's part of being in the parks it's it's the sounds of being with us so you're going to hear all that raw stuff in our episodes. You're going to hear

magical meltdowns of kids. You're going to hear the trash cans closing. That's part of the beauty of it because that's how you know that you are in this magical place that we love. So, let's go. Let's go walk around the park. We're at Animal Kingdom today

and I don't really have a plan. This is going to be very chill because there's not a whole lot of people here. I'm here kind of toward the end of the day. So everyone's pretty much leaving. which will make it nice for us. So we're just going to be pretty chill today, walk around the park and see what we can hear.

Sound good? All right, let's walk about Animal Kingdom. So we often talk about in the Magic Kingdom, we always ask you which way you go, left tunnel, right tunnel. We don't often ask, what about at Animal Kingdom? Which way do you go at Animal Kingdom? I just went left. so you know in uh out to into the oasis um before you get to discovery island with all the waterfalls

and some of the oh that was a pretty noise you know they got all the uh smaller exhibits sometimes you luck out if you go to the left and you get to see the giant ant eater don't see him today he's back there it's probably too cold from him but yeah i think usually i go left instinctually. Sometimes when you go to the right, that's when you get to see, if you're lucky, you'll see Divine. The camouflage performer and stilts

blends in with the flora. Hey look, there's a big tree. Tree of life directly ahead of us. Beautiful sight. Especially in this light. Wilderness Explorers headquarters we just passed by.

into Discovery Island, Riverside Depot to our right, island mercantile to the left. Gorgeous day for a walkabout. Once again, I find myself going left toward Pandora and Africa. Let's see where this path takes us. We'll see what we end up doing. That's what a walkabout is all about.

There's no real plan. We go where our instincts and the sounds take us. You guys want to head to the safari? Let's do the safari today. Passing the otter grotto to our right, which I do believe there are some new friends over there. They're sleeping. Aw, they're babies.

They must be cold. They're all huddled up together. Let me grab a picture. Sweet baby otters. Tree of Life Garden Trail to our right. As we continue. as we continue marching forward toward Africa, Harambe. One of the absolute best things at Animal Kingdom to pay attention to are all the carvings and all the details and all of the architecture,

whether it be on the buildings or even in the lampposts and signage. The carvings are just beautiful, and they all tell a story. So make sure you're always looking at the details when you come here, because it really has beautifully detailed story in all of the lands. Come over the bridge into Harambe. It's the sweet sounds of Buradika. Glad to have them back. Buradika was gone for a while, but they're back and we're happy because we love them. Rambay wasn't the same without him.

Alright, let's head over to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Just a girl. I had the animal's spotting job located on the back of every seat is there to help you up. So join us in Kilimanjara Sapphires for the experience of life. So that was us walking through the office there. Still have some of the original theming. Come see us Big Red and her Kath Little Red.

and her cat little red just two of Harambe's famous wild animals Arambe wildlife reserve enjoy your visit great poster the original storyline of Kilimanjaro sparras it's a search for me and ladies chapo everyone welcome to Kibmanjaral safari before you begin your trip you should know that the On the bare roads of the harrowling, how are you having your face? You make experience of office and sudden change on your safari and make sure a safe and pleasant trip

you should be in good health and free from high pressure How many are you here guys? TIP? Okay, just a case or other conditions will be aggravated by NACTA expected by NRAFE expected mothers should not ride. Once on board your safari transport,

Please remain seated with your hands, arms, feet and legs inside, and remember to watch your children. Your transport will be arriving shortly. Asante's sign. And draw your adventure at Kinamjaro safaris. The Coyot's driver, you are here. Asante sound out of order, Asante Sama makes care of Rambay. In other word, we like to say, these two and a day, which means. Let's go.

Back all the years of your supply. I get on today's trip round by Rabeo. Outback reserve. A few say, do reminders, please remain seated. arms, feet, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. If you guys look above your heads, you'll see a wildlife spotting guide, showing you pictures of a lot of the animals we can see out there. Not a guarantee we'll see all of them, but hopefully we see as many as possible as we do head on out there today.

In just a moment here, the first part of the reserve, we're going to be entering as the Little Attirye Forest keyword here beyond forest. There's going to be a lot of trees and a lot of bushes, sometimes making it a little difficult to spot some of these animals. We'll be trying our best, keeping our fingers grubs as we head into the Little Attorney Forest. Out to the right is an Okapi. Ocopis have black and white stripes on their likes. A lot of people think that because of those stripes, they're related to the zebra when they're more closely related to the giraffe based on their skeletal structure and prehentile.

They may notice that there's a lot of bamboo here in the forest. Bamboos are a very fast-growing trees, making bamboo products a great alternative to paper products. They're easy to make a high quantity. It's easy to recycle and they help out with habitat destruction here in the forest to raise animals. But around the corner coming up on our right, we'll see a saddleboat stork, saddlebuild stork, we'll see two saddle, storks, Storke, black and whiteburn with the yellow saddle shape on their beak.

To the left is a black rhino. Black rhinos can reach 3,000 pounds, they can run at 30 miles per hour, and they're gonna have a prehensile upper lip, prehensile meaning finger like, it's pointing and it helps to grab things. As for the saddle belt stork here to the right, they're gonna have a wingspan of about nine feet in width. That's the same width as the awning above our heads. today. To the right are some pink back pelicans and we can see that hippo out there as well.

Pink back pelicans are the light gray birds in long beaks. They get their pink coloration during mating season. They've got a similar way to expand to that. The Salville store is about nine feet of width. That's for that hippo. A group of hippos are called it bloat and an adult hippo can reach 5,500 pounds in full grown. Hippos, they can hold their breath for seven minutes at any times. They're often found underwater. That's where they spend this other day. They're able to take short naps underwater, which is pretty cool. We'll come up for air when they need it. Stay seated, friends.

Stay seated. Well, here goes another hippo out of the water coming up on our left. But in a moment, we're gonna head over the bridge as we head over this bridge. Keep an eye out to the left. See if we can get lucky and find any animals in the water over here.

I go by pretty slowly. Thoppy River. We're just about to head out into the Savannah. Not the Savannah is home and some well-known animals, animals such as the lion, the cheetah, the doropony elephant. I'll be a reminder, does not a carrot that we see all these animals, but hopefully we see as many as possible as we head out there today.

Coming up on our right, we will see a Beobov tree in just a moment here. Beowab trees are going to remain leafless for about nine months of the year. They hold our water in their trunk. Now, animals will often puncture the trunk of the tree to get to the water inside, especially on hot days, which is why they could also be known as the tree of life. So we'll see this tree coming up on our right. We're gonna start to head on down the hill. As we head down the hill,

there may be a variety of different animals around out there. I'm gonna mention the ones closest to us first one's out in the distance. I will mention as we get closer and we'll be getting close to some pretty cool animals out there in just a few moments. Coming up on our right, I'm starting to see An Coley Cattling.

There's three more An Coley Cattles out to the far right on the other side of that green truck. that green truck. And there's some wildebeest out here. So we're going to head out there. We call the cattle, they're going to have some pretty big and impressive horns. Their horns look heavy, but they're not. They're going to have a honeycomb-like structure inside and contain blood vessels that help cool the cattle down on hot days. And coley cattle can also be referred to as the Watusi cattle. They still have people that first domesticated them. D giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. They can reach 16 to 20 feet tall with full grown. Maybe giraffe are first.

born are about six feet tall so even they are taller than I will ever be and a group of giraffes they're called the towers they tower over the rest of the savannah there goes a few more of those and coley cattle to our left coming up on our right we'll see another giraffe there it goes walking off into the distance if you look up at the top of the heads of those drafts they have these things called osicones those are those things that look like horns they're not actually horns that's part of their skeleton they're not going anywhere old seven malo copies have also codes that's why they are related based on their skeletal structure. Another similarity between the giraffe and the o'copy is their prehensile tongue. Prehensile

meaning finger leg, it's long. It helps them grab things. The giraffe's prehensile tongue can reach about 18 inches long. That's the same length as an adult's forearm. In a moment out to the right we'll see some more will-de-weest up on the horizon. We'll also see this Eeland walking towards that little tree trunk there. Eelands are very tall to an antelope. They can reach six feet tall to shoulder, 2,000 pounds. I see another Eland up ahead. Male eelands, their horns are shorter and thicker. Female eelings, their horns are longer and thinner.

So this one out to the right is a female Eland. If you saw her horns, I do see that male. So we're going to head hopefully up to see him. We're going to keep an eye out to the left to see if we can find any really cool animals out there. I'll say, notice a lot of broken down trees. sign that there might be some animals that are considered bulldozers out there. One animal that is considered a bulldozer are the elephants. They'll knock trees down and get to the leaves up the top of the trees. So that's what we see out there. There's a whole bunch of trees.

Probably not down by some elephants. So let's see if we can find them. To the left up here are the greater flamingos. The greater flamingos, they are the largest with the least pink of the flamingo species. And get their pink coloration from their diet. And their dyeing they're dark. is going to be brine shrimp, which contains a protein called beta carotene. Now when first hatched baby flamingos, they are small, gray, and fluffy. They don't get their full pink coloration until about two to two and a half years of age. And a group of flamingos.

They're called a flamboyance. So that's what this is, a flamboyance of flamingos. We're going to head on through these rocks and into rhino territory. So, fingers now, we see some rhinos out there today. Rhinos, they use dirt and mud as a form of natural sublifloaf. and I'm down protecting our skin. On the high shades of the sun. And all coming up on our left is going to be a pretty fresh mud wallow.

A good sign the rhinos have been here, so let's see if we can find out where they are now. I'll say that rhinos, they are often poached for their horns. Their horns are believed to have a medicinal benefit to us. But in all reality, they do not. Their horns are made out of inheritin. That's the same thing that makes up our hair and fingernails. So their horns give us no medicinal benefit. Lions like the cats you may have at home will rest for about 16 to 20 hours a day.

They save their energy to hunt at night when they have their best eyesight or vision. And a lion's roar can be heard about five miles away. That's how they communicate across the wide open Savannah. There goes the male lion. He's walking the same direction we're headed. We're going to see some rhinos in just a moment. Hopefully some more, actually. But there's one tour right here.

but that's a white rhino up at the hill. White rhinos can reach 6,000 pounds. They can run at 35 miles per hour. And they're gonna have a while. You might see those ostrichs there as well. There's those water bucks one more times. But those ostrichs, a single ostrich can weigh about three pounds. The same weight is about two dozen chicken eggs.

They're also pretty sturdy. They can withstand the weight of an adult ostrich standing on top of them. That comes in handy when your parents are ostrich. An adult male ostrich can like almost. We're headed over that bridge as we did as we did. We're exiting the Savannah and heading into the Magati Glen. The Magadi Glen is home to the wardens post here in the reserve. The waterlies raise of Nigerian Borko. So we're going to see here to our left. These goats are full grown. They won't get any bigger than that and they produce the sweet milk, which can be used for dairy products and soap making.

Now if you look at that yellow triangle-shaped wooden box, that is the start of a B5 fence. Something interesting that researchers over at Disney's Animal Kingdom, but because the elephants are afraid of the sound of bees. Farmers in Kenya have implemented this research by incorporating the pie of sister-out their crops. This helps out the farmers. As elephants are no longer eating or destroying their crops, they also get an additional cow's grab of honey.

Also helps out those elephants because farmers can get territorial on their crops. As we have through that final, final gate, our safari together is coming to a close today. I hope you all have enjoyed the fun and cool animals we've seen animals such as the lion, the cheetah, the rhino, and the giraffe here just. and the giraffe here at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Our goal is to help and forecast of conservation efforts that having can be taken, help save animals around the world. One thing you can do at home is recycle your electronics,

electronics such as your phone to have on computers. These electronics have a mineral called Coltan and then Manalcanan is a highly recyclable mineral. That is my foreign Africa. The mining efforts to get to this mineral does cause some habitat destruction for animals. So if at all possible, recycling your electronics to help save the lives and homes of animals such as the... friends it looks like that doc is just about to open up so we're going to head on up there

now here and her own baby we don't like to say goodbye this far too sad if far too fine all instead we say quarriedie which means to go well so we begin to approach this talk and you start together all of your belongings for our reading friends go well go wild have an amazing list of your day here it's disney's animal that was a nice safari i gotta say it was different it's one of the first times in a long time where uh the safari had to change its course a little bit and used the other pathways. I'm assuming they do that for various reasons, like certain animals that are in the path and their radios communicating to the other trucks and things like that.

But we didn't go to the old bridge. Didn't see any elephants. But what we did see was probably the most majestic and... incredible views of the lions that I've ever seen. It was awesome. The lions, the female, one of the females was on top of the copi rocks and the male came out and walked and, you know, the sun coming through backlit. So this coming through the main and everything and I will post that video because it is really, really cool. So we're back into Harambe. Walking toward Harambe Market, cool stylized Lion King artwork on the fence.

And the Fichwa Fellow mural to our left. Definitely try and come and do the safari around sunset. You're going to get the best animal viewing. I thought for sure we wouldn't see really anything because it's been quite chilly. It's winter in Florida. are a couple of days of winter that we have. But I guess it warmed up just enough for those lions to come out. And that was just, man, that was really cool.

Can't wait for you guys to see that video because it's pretty impressive. Okay. Left. Left, again. Left seems to be the direction of the day. We're going left toward Asia. Going to take the path less traveled. One of my favorite paths in Animal Kingdom.

pathway into Asia, Mr. Kamals to the right, and those seasoned fries that they changed. GER. Some of the best views are the tree here from the tree of life are from the back over here, I believe. I like to think. I think those are the best views. Feathered friends in flight to the left. Shows are over for today. Looks like they're doing some magic shots over here.

here by the stage in Asia. That's a good view too. But we also just don't want to get the sign. Right. So this one would be ones where you're holding the kids. I got to show you like, and this one part is, it's a walk into the sun. Coming up to a intersection where a drink walla

straight ahead, with all of its wonderful signage. If you turn right, you're going to go back to Discovery Island. We're going to keep going straight into Kingdom of a nondipur. There's some great seating down by the river at the drink walla. Another beautiful scenic spot just to chill. One of my favorites. Whenever you see a path at Animal Kingdom that is off the main path, take it. You got to take it because you're going to find some of the best stuff,

some of the most calming and just really neat visuals. There's statues. There's plenty of vegetation and all this lush life everywhere. Just a really great way to take in nature at a Disney park. They did a really great job. They do a really great job of giving you those little breathing spaces at this park where you can get off the main path for a while. Just to enjoy the natural elements of the park.

Forbidden mountain in view now. Vista of the Himalayas. Of course, the Siamangs to the left of us. They're fine. They're being very quiet today. Approaching the Yeti Palace Hotel. Still, opening next season. Man, how many seasons have we been now?

Still not open. It's the speaker over at Gupta's gear. One of the best speakers, I swear. Music's always loud. Thirsty River Bar to our left. Looks like everybody is at Everest. Lines outside, wrapped around. I think it was down earlier.

That's why. 50 minutes, it says. Prayer flags above us as we walk down the pathway, blowing in the breeze. very gentle breeze, colors of blue and white and red and green and yellow. Let's go down and see if we can hear the Yeti, or at least the effects of the Yeti.

More really cool details down here. You go down the steps toward the overlook, and you can see the drop. heading out of Anandapur over the bridge toward what is left of Dinoland USA soon to be tropical Americas theater in the wild to our left

home to the Finding Nemo Big Blue and Beyond show and into the land of destruction walls snakes why did it have to be snakes Indies coming to Animal Kingdom you guys it's happening

It's happening. More signage for tropical Americas. There's butterflies, lining the walls, some signs with the quotes from the movies that the attractions are based on. And that takes us over in front of the Restaurantosaurus, and the restaurantosaurus lounge. The entrance to dinosaur. Still have the Cretaceous Trail, parts of the Cretaceous Trail.

Currently, Daisy. meeting with guests next to the dinosaur and her costume designs. Then you have the Orthamimus statue looking over what is currently construction. Poor guys just waiting to be extinct again. It sure is going to be different for a while. This part of the park closed. But super excited for what's to come. There's Donald.

dead end over at Restaurantosaurus. I've got to follow the walls back the other direction. This side of the walls has bats. The other side had butterflies. This has the concept art for the indie attraction. The temple. Looks pretty cool. Very excited.

So not going to ride dinosaur today, but we will definitely come back in the coming weeks before dinosaur goes extinct and we'll ride as a crew the local crew and say goodbye have another walkabout Animal Kingdom the more of the crew

all right we are back to the main path headed toward Discovery Island back over the bridge and the plain tree barbecue tour is going to trade company to the left Zootopia bedded together

straight ahead is the entrance we'll have to grab that another day too So it looks like they changed the character meet and greet to Zootopia characters. Are they going to? Have they done that yet? I don't know. I haven't seen them today, but the gathering spot for Zoo Gather Day. So I'll imagine this is where you would meet Utopia characters. Used to be when you would meet with Russell and Deb.

That's a wilderness explorers outpost. And hey, we are turning left yet again. to get back two entrants so we didn't come in through the waterfalls let's walk out through the waterfalls all right we are back at the entrance where we began our walkabout

thanks for being here today travelers if you enjoyed your time with us give us a follow over on Instagram and we're on TikTok now too check out photos and the videos from our walkabouts, get to know and interact with the hosts, all seven of us. We love to hear your feedback.

We love listening to your Disney memories, sharing the love of the parks with us. And you can even throw out requests and suggestions for future episodes if you want. We love that. So head on over to Instagram and TikTok. Check us out over there. Give us a follow. And say hi. That said, thank you guys again so much for traveling with us today.

and we hope you will join us next time for another walk about the world. So have a great big beautiful tomorrow, and we will see you real soon. Bye.