Walt Disney’s vision for his parks included a strong emphasis on nature conservation. While this value is still apparent today in educational attractions at Animal Kingdom and Epcot, most guests may not realize that a third of Disney World’s property is still set aside for natural habitat conservation. This proximity to Florida’s wilderness has created a rich environment where local wildlife don’t just occasionally skitter through Disney parks—they literally call those parks home.
Florida is already a lush state where animals and humans cross paths daily. At Disney World, these interactions have taken on a life all their own. On any Disney trip, you might observe songbirds, color-changing geckos, or come face to face with Florida’s formidable insects. Some of these interactions, however, might just take guests by surprise…
1. Death from above – Divebombing seagulls
Image: DaveF3138, Flickr (license)
Anyone who has spent time near water probably chuckled when Finding Nemo chose seagulls as the butt of one of the film’s funniest jokes.
“Mine! Mine! Mine-Mine-Mine! Mine!”
Take a stroll by the entrance for The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot if you ever need a reminder. It doesn’t take long watching seagulls to realize just how resourceful, gregarious, and audacious these birds can be. For how quirky they are to watch, gulls can quickly turn into nuisance birds, particularly when they associate humans with food.
Part of this issue stems from the naughty habit of guests feeding wildlife. However, it’s not entirely guests’ fault. With so many outdoor eating locations, it’s impossible for Disney restaurant and custodial staff to sweep away every empty plate or bucket of popcorn abandoned by passing parkgoers. Seagulls are quick to swoop in and scavenge these rich morsels, but some of the bolder ones have taken a more devious approach to filling their bellies.
Divebombing guests to stealth-pilfer food.
Image: Jett Farrell-Vega
I first observed this phenomenon outside the Rose and Crown pub at Epcot. A number of guests sat in the open café area by the water to enjoy fish and chips. Families engaged in conversation, munched on pub fare, and snapped photos of World Showcase from their seats. A flock of seagulls perched on the lagoon wall, watching… waiting.
Unbeknownst to the diners, one of the gulls took to the air, masterfully riding thermals to hover above the tables. Like an old-timey claw machine, the gull dropped directly down, scooped up two clawfuls of fried fish, and swooped over the wall to safety before the stunned guests could even blink. These folks weren’t clumsy eaters flailing their fish in the air. The seagull had straight up ninja-d a full basket of fish from the center of the crowd.
It seemed a one-off event, but a few minutes later, the scenario repeated itself. A gentleman looked away from his meal for a second. The next, a seagull dove in, trying to snatch his basket of chips. The gentleman swept his meal away just in time for the gull to claim a beak full of napkins which it discarded during its escape. The others chanted “Mine-Mine-Mine!” in mockery at their comrade’s failure.
This is an amusing example of the gulls tenacity, but more serious cases can actually result in guest injuries—those beaks are sharp (good thing Disney has awesome first aid centers). If you see these Florida locals hovering nearby, perhaps keep your plate a little closer than normal. If not, your fish fillet might end up the next meal for these clever little burglars.
2. The Walt Disney World Biannual Lovebug Parade
Image: Sandy Poore, Flickr (license)
With its wide variety of bizarre bugs, Florida is an entomologist’s dream. Particularly in the summer, there’s no avoiding encounters with the state’s insect population. If you’re planning on visiting Disney World in May, August, or September, that encounter might prove a bit more dramatic than you expected.
This is because late spring and early fall are lovebug season. If you have ever visited the parks during these times, you no doubt spotted these bizarre seemingly two-headed flies. I recall seeing them as a kid at the Old Key West resort, asking my parents just why the little buzzing weirdos appeared to be attached by the butt wherever they went.
The life of a lovebug is a short, passionate affair. After hatching, these mostly-harmless flies spend about twenty days chowing down on everything they can sink their mouths into, filling their larval bodies with nutrients and organic materials. Once fully grown, they take to the air in spectacular, car-encrusting swarms. Males seek out available females and waste no time getting busy. After all, they only live 2-3 days.
Once mating has commenced, the lovebugs stay attached, even when in flight. While this courtship looks like a placid (if bizarre) affair to our eyes, for the lovebugs, it is such an energetic exchange that the males die shortly after mating.
Tough break…
Image: Florida Fish and Wildlife, Flickr (license)
The females drag their lover’s still-attached body around for a time, lay their eggs, then die themselves about a day later. This flurry of activity can result in veritable plagues of lovebugs that usually last for a few days to a few weeks. They do not bite or sting, but they can be annoying to walk through, buzz into guest rooms, and can be particularly difficult to remove from vehicles. Disney does a respectable job controlling them, but unlike Pokémon, they can’t catch ‘em all.
There’s not much guests can do to avoid lovebugs during their mating swarms besides waving them away… though, perhaps if you see a pair, a recitation of Romeo and Juliet might be appropriate: “Thus, with a kiss, I die.”
3. Speaking of jealous lovers…
Image: Kyosuke Takayama, Flickr (license)
We’ve commented on ducks getting frisky at Disney parks before—particularly, on the Jungle Cruise. What can we say? Disney World is one of the top honeymoon destinations in the world.
What we didn’t mention, however, is that when ducks get amorous, they look like they’re trying to murder each other.
It’s a hard concept to picture, particularly after a family of mallards have demurely waddled by your feet at Kringla begging for crumbs. I mean, two of Disney’s most famous characters, Donald and Daisy, are ducks. By their very nature, they’re utterly precious.
In the wild, however, ducks have some interesting issues when mating season rolls around. The icky details of duck reproductive anatomy are not something I recommend you Google. I’m serious. What you will see cannot be unseen. Here’s the PG-version, though I would advise that readers with gentle souls, sensitivities to violence, or just anyone who really loves ducks skip this part.
Ducks are one of the few bird species that practice forced copulation. They don’t do charming dances like swans or build little nests strewn with trinkets like bower birds. When a female is ready for mating, she identifies a male she wants to have offspring with. However, once she gives him visual cues, it’s not uncommon for every male duck in the vicinity to barrel in to claim her as their own. The entire process is disturbingly violent. I witnessed this phenomenon the first time at Animal Kingdom, near the Drinkwallah restaurant.
Image: Neil Mullins, Flickr (license)
We were slurping some chai when a female duck charged out of the bushes with two other ducks right on her tail. One was clearly a male, but the other looked female (I would learn later that this was a different species of male duck). With a loud ruckus and much wing-flapping, the males chased her through the crowd, into the bushes, and finally caught her with their beaks and jumped on top of her. We stared in shock, unsure what to do as they bloodied her neck, yanking out her head features and pecking at her repeatedly. We thought for certain they would kill her. We grabbed a nearby cast member who was answering questions about lemurs. By the time we got back, the action was over. Fortunately, the female duck was all right, if not a little bald and bloodied.
The cast member explained that this is normal behavior and that the disturbing scene is a common one certain times of year in the parks. By the end of mating season, it’s not unusual for most of the female ducks to be missing feathers on their head and necks. While the males’ attentions can prove a violent spectacle, the female duck ultimately gets the last laugh as she can choose (with stunning specificity) which male will father her ducklings.
The moral of the story? Next time you see a mother duck with a family of fuzzy babies diligently following her through the Magic Kingdom castle moat, perhaps give her a salute. She’s no Daisy Duck. She’s freaking Sarah Connor.
4. Charlotte’s (really, really big) web
Image: John Flannery, Flickr (license)
It’s just not a trip to Florida without nearly walking into a spider the size of your face. While you’d expect to encounter some gargantuan arachnids through a glass barrier at Animal Kingdom, you might not realize that some of the biggest spiders in the US live within sneezing distance of passing guests at Disney World.
We had some chuckles in the past about guests encountering the massive Black and Yellow Argiope spider on Tom Sawyer Island, but the most common uber-spider at Disney is the magnificent Golden Orb Weaver—sometimes misleadingly called the banana spider. These brightly-hued beauties can have a leg span of about 2-3 inches, and their elaborate golden silk webs can stretch as wide as a meter. You can find them in forested locations throughout Disney World, but they seem to especially like weaving rows of Mirkwood-like webs in the stretch of trees along the path leading from the Beach Club Resort to Epcot’s International Gateway.
Image: Katja Schulz, Flickr (license)
While these mega-spiders can look intimidating, the good news is they are generally docile. Unlike wolf or cane spiders, Golden Orb Weavers generally try to avoid humans. Some locals have even reported walking right through webs without the spiders even stirring. Still, if you’re planning on taking a woodland hike out of Fort Wilderness, perhaps keep an eye on where you’re walking so you don’t come literally face to face with one of these gentle giants.
What’s the wackiest local wildlife moment you’ve seen at Disney World?
