Animal Kingdom cost nearly one billion dollars to build. Four million cubic yards of dirt were moved and nearly 40,000 plants were added. It was decided that the plants in Animal Kingdom would need to be put in for two growing seasons before the animals arrived. This meant that the construction team had until the Spring of 1996 to get all the plants in place. This deadline was met, and the fall of 1997 the animals were brought in. They came from various zoo's or wildlife preserves around the world. A few animals were also from the wild, but were too injured to be re-released. In total Animal Kingdom is home to over 1,700 animals.
[[Image:AnimalKingdomSerfariElands.jpg|300px|thumb|Elands grazing on the Kilimanjaro Safari]]
As construction continued, funds for the new park began to dwindle. Eventually it was decided that Animal Kingdom would have to open in three phases. The first phase would consist of The Oasis, Safari Village, Africa, Conservation Station, and an unfinished Asia. Also included in phase one would be either DinoLand USA or Beastly Kingdom. Disney eventually decided to build DinoLand USA, possibly due to the new Dinosaur movie that they were releasing in 2000.