Wild animals at Walt Disney World

[yoda_5729]

Hello, I have no idea where to properly put this thread, but I thought it was something that may not have been discussed.

WDW is a place, being in Central Florida, that has a lot of natural wildlife living in and around it. I thought it might be a good idea to have at least one thread dedicated to wild animals seen in the parks and resorts area.

The reason I was interested in this is because on a walk back from Magic Kingdom to Bay Lake Tower at night, I found a sidewalk with at least 4 or 5 red millipedes walking across it. I'm not from Florida, and I was curious if anyone who lives in the area are familiar with them, or what species they are. If I can, I'll try posting a picture. It probably is a common animal, but not being from there, I wasn't as familiar with Florida invertebrates as I would be others. Any help on the millipede species would be appreciated.

I thought others might enjoy this topic, and they could post pics or ask questions about the various wild animals seen at the parks, not counting those in captivity at Animal Kingdom or Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[britdaw]

My daughters loved spotting the lizards we seemed to find everywhere. Especially at our hotel, there were lizards almost everywhere we looked. We also saw a live gator in the lake at our hotel, which we were all excited about.

 

[yoda_5729]

When I was there late April, I also saw many lizards, especially in the China pavilion at Epcot and near the Contemporary. I believe the lizards are Bahama or Brown Anoles. That at least was the one I saw. Also in the China Pavilion are dragonflies and frogs in the lagoon area, that can be seen amongst the lily pads.

I have seen various wildlife over the years, including herons, Ibis are all over the place, and American Black Vultures are found at Animal Kingdom and space Mountain. On a boat ride from Contemporary I was randomly taking pictures of the old Discovery island, and you can clearly see sitting in the trees in a few of the shots, brown pelicans.

One of the more unique sightings, at least for me, was one day I opened the door early in the morning at Pop Century Resort and in the grassy lawn outside the door was an armadillo. Being from where I am, I don't see armadillos too often.

 

[Prince-1]

On property you can find deer, wild pigs (not joking), and alligators.

 

[rangerbob]

Don't forget turkey and snakes.

 

[Hulacat]

We have been charmed by spotting bunnies in several places: Epcot, POR and near Downtown Disney.

 

[WelshBatman]

You talk about the wild animals you see, but it's what you don't see lurking around Disney that's quite interesting. Like the giant snake they took out of the Swiss Family Treehouse several years ago (and the constant snake problem they've got there now) and rumors of Florida panthers in the area. No doubt you've also got some bears in the area (I mean, they're in the Orlando area anyway and are probably around Disney). You've got coyotes and armadillos as well.

Central Florida being the swamp that it is contains some interesting animals. Just stay clear of the gators and venemous snakes. Also, as someone mentioned, the wild pigs. They can get really big and are very nasty.

 

[mergatroid]

Saw some wild black pigs (hogs?) off the road leaving Disney joining the I4 near the Mickey electrical pylon the other year, a whole gang of them looking moody.

 

[UPbeekeeper]

Ever since my kids were small, we have made a game of keeping track of how many of each type of wildlife we see at the parks. It's my secret way of getting them to slow down and observe the wonders around them instead of wanting to just run from one ride to the next.

I just adore those sweet little lizards.

 

[rob45]

While staying at Fort Wilderness Campground i have encountered wild turkeys, deer, bald eagles, rabbits, and have seen wild pigs on the way to the other parks.

 

[wild01ride]

Let's not forget the giant Softshell Turtle(s?) in the lagoon outside The Odyssey at Epcot. It's gotta be the largest I've see in the wild.
Very cool!
Great thread idea (although I'd MUCH rather stick to the vertebrates! I'd rather encounter ANYTHING that's big with teeth than the small, scurrying sort of creatures!)

 

[Princess_Minnie]

I've seen a flock of wild turkeys on many occasions.
I've seen families of deer.
Once when we were staying at the Wilderness Lodge, we looked our our balcony and saw a family of river otters in the pond below us (the whole trip I had thought it was just a dirty little pond, but it turned out to be pretty cool!).
Disney is the only place I've actually seen a LIVE armadillo.
My dad swears he once saw a huge alligator sitting by a pond on one of the golf courses.
Then there's the ducks in the parks, which I find adorable. We once had a couple that came to our balcony at Old Key West every morning and we would feed them bread. Guess what we called them
I was once attacked at the Wilderness Lodge by a flock of white egrets while eating breakfast. Those suckers have freaked me out ever since.

The one thing that I never really notice at Disney is bugs. I don't get bitten by mosquitos. I don't have ants crawling on me. There's never a rogue bed of fire ants or a spider in our hotel room. I've never been ambushed by a flock of Love Bugs. And for such a dank, humid state with TONS of bus, I never EVER notice them at the resorts or in the parks. Strange, isn't it? :shrug:

 

[TRIFORCE89]

I see lots of lizards when I'm at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach. I don't particularly welcome them when I'm barefoot.

 

[monkeysammich]

On our last trip to Pop Century, we spent a good half hour watching a family of bunnies with our daughter. Was quite the highlight.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

You talk about the wild animals you see, but it's what you don't see lurking around Disney that's quite interesting. Like the giant snake they took out of the Swiss Family Treehouse several years ago (and the constant snake problem they've got there now) and rumors of Florida panthers in the area. No doubt you've also got some bears in the area (I mean, they're in the Orlando area anyway and are probably around Disney). You've got coyotes and armadillos as well.

Central Florida being the swamp that it is contains some interesting animals. Just stay clear of the gators and venemous snakes. Also, as someone mentioned, the wild pigs. They can get really big and are very nasty.

There's a picture of that floating around somewhere.

 

[kangaand2roos]

I've seen a rather large alligator at CBR many years ago. Also the typical tiny lizards, bunnies etc. We stayed at WL 2 years ago and I saw a large reddish snake coming out from underneath the dock area near the pool. I have a true phobia of snakes, I'm not talking fear, this is an all out phobia, sweating, heart beating fast, dizzy phobia of them. I grabbed my daughter and ran. I won't stay at the WL again, just because of that.

 

[SCB502]

This one sounds far fetched but is the honest to God's truth. One morning when taking the boat from Ft. Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom we saw a cougar walking across the rope bridge at River Country.
We also pretty much had our camping loop shut down once when I reported a rattle snake behind our motor home. It was right under our bikes and my kids were probably two and four at the time so I wanted it out of there. They probably had 50 people out looking for it. I told them it was no doubt 100% a rattle snake. They had us move sites, kept the one we were in closed and kept people looking for the better part of the day.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I've lived in Florida for several years now and somehow never seen an alligator not in captivity.

But I have seen armadilows, wild pigs, coyotes (I think), lots of deer (you will see a lot of deer on WDW property at night), snakes, turtles, frogs, toads, the lizards of course, sand hill cranes (which are awesome), umm... I saw my first ever woodpecker the other day...

I guess I never really thought about it but there's a lot of wildlife here.

 

[GenerationX]

Back in 2006 I saw a yeti at the AK reach out menacingly toward me. I've seen him a couple of times since then, but somewhere along the way he became less fierce and adopted a peculiar affinity for 70s disco lighting.

 

[Maryssa*]

The one thing that I never really notice at Disney is bugs. I don't get bitten by mosquitos. I don't have ants crawling on me. There's never a rogue bed of fire ants or a spider in our hotel room. I've never been ambushed by a flock of Love Bugs. And for such a dank, humid state with TONS of bus, I never EVER notice them at the resorts or in the parks. Strange, isn't it? :shrug:

You must have never been there during Midge breeding season... like something out of a nightmare. I had a panic attack riding the boat from the MK to the WL at night (I have a pretty bad bug/swarm phobia)