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Construction on Disney's Animal began in August of 1995. Like other Disney theme parks, Animal Kingdom was to be made up of various "lands". When designing the park, the lands in Disney's Animal Kingdom were going to be: The Oasis, Safari Village, Africa, Asia, Conservation Station, DinoLand USA and Beastly Kingdom. Through these lands Animal Kingdom was to represent three groups of animals: current living animals, extinct animals, and mythological animals.
Construction on Disney's Animal Kingdom cost nearly one billion dollars to buildbegan in August of 1995. Four million cubic yards of dirt were moved and nearly 40,000 plants were added during the parks construction<ref name= "trivia"/>. During this process it was decided that the plants in Animal Kingdom would need to be in the ground for two growing seasons before the animals arrived. This meant that the construction horticulture team led by Disney Legend Bill Evans had until the spring of 1996 to get all the plants in place<ref> http://allears.net/ae/issue863.htm </ref>. This deadline was met, and the fall of 1997 the animals were brought in to the park<ref> http://land.allears.net/blogs/jackspence/2011/01/kilimanjaro_safaris_at_animal_1.html </ref>. 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 KingdomKingdomme <ref name= "jim"> http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2001/01/01/309.aspx </ref>. Disney eventually decided to build DinoLand USA, possibly due to the new movie “Dinosaur” that was to be released in 2000<ref name= "jim"/>.
Phase II was planned to be the completion of Asia, along with the construction of Beastly Kingdom. Due to the park not being completed on opening day, Camp Minnie-Mickey, a place where guests could meet various Disney characters, was created as a temporary land. Camp Minnie-Mickey was to be essentially a place holder until Beastly Kingdom could be built<ref> http://www.yesterland.com/campmm.html </ref>.
Like the other Disney Parks, Animal Kingdom also has an icon “The Tree of Life”. The Tree of Life stands 145 feet tall and is made of mostly steel. Imagineers had a hard time figuring out how to make the tree look authentic, while being able to withstand hurricane winds. On top of all that, the tree would also have to house the 3D attraction [[It's Tough to be a Bug!]]. The solution Imagineering came up with was actually fairly simple. First, they took the structure of an oil rig for the base. 45 secondary branches were then added to the tree, followed by 756 tertiary branches and finally 891 end branches. The Tree was then covered with 102,583 manmade leaves. 20 artisans then carved over 300 animals into the tree. When the Tree of Life was completed it looked as if the animals themselves were making up the tree. Construction on Disney's Animal Kingdom finished in the spring of 1998.
