}}
==Conception==
Although the plans for Disney's Animal Kingdom began in 1989full 1990 <ref> http://disneydose.com/joe-rohde/#axzz4AT6WmacW </ref>, the idea of the park can be traced back to Walt Disney himself. When designing the attraction the [[Jungle Cruise]] for Disneyland, Walt wanted guests to see real animals. He felt that being in close proximity to real animals would give guests a unique and exciting experience. Eventually however, it was decided that real animals would be too unpredictable and each guest on the attraction would not get an equal experience. Because of this, when the Jungle Cruise opened it featured Audio Animatronic animals, which were much more predictable and consistent than live ones. Although Walt never got to see it, Disney's Animal Kingdom took his basic idea and expanded it to a much larger scale.
When Walt Disney World was ready to expand again in 19891990, Michael Eisner (the CEO of Disney) tasked his Imagineers met with creating Imagineer Joe Rohde to hear a proposal for a new theme park based on that would feature live animals<ref name= "all"/>. In 1990 a team of Imagineers led by Joe Rohde began brainstorming different ideas for the park and in 1992 the park layout was finally adopted<ref name= "all"> http://allears.net/ae/issue187.htm </ref>. It was decided that the park would be part zoo and part theme park.
The idea for a new animal theme park was put on hold however during the early 1990s. A recession had hit the country, and theme parks were hit especially hard. Also complicating matters, Disney's newest park, Disneyland Paris, was not doing as well as Disney had expected. However in 1994 with the economy picking up and the recent success of the Disney movie “The Lion King” plans for a new theme park were once again put in motion. To this end, from 1992-1995 Disney Imagineers studied wild animals in their natural habit, focusing on Africa.