Up Close With Rhinos tour
I was in WDW last week and was able to do the Up Close with Rhinos tour at Animal Kingdom. I thought I’d give a quick review of it as I don’t remember seeing much about this tour on the boards.
This was a one-hour backstage tour to the rhino barn at Animal Kingdom. Because it’s backstage absolutely NO pictures were allowed. Also, it wasn’t until we got the confirmation email the day before that they said it was recommended that we wear closed toe shoes. My mom hadn’t brought any to Florida however it wasn’t an issue – or even mentioned once we arrived for the tour. The price of the tour was $40 and I did get a DVC discount on it. They run one tour a day and it’s limited to 14 people. The proceeds from the tour went towards rhino conservation which I hadn’t heard until the trainers told us backstage.
We met in front of the safari ride fifteen minutes prior to the tour starting. We were given lanyards with our name on them. At 11:00 we were brought backstage and put on a bus which then drove about five minutes to the rhino barn, which is located behind the cheetah enclosure on the safari ride if anyone is interested. (The cheetah barn was also there – as an aside the keepers told us that the cheetah’s favorite scent was Calvin Klein’s Obsession and they would often use it on objects in their area for enrichment.) At the rhino barn they gave us an overview on the way the barn was built, the features it has (skylights with ventilation that allows air in even in poor weather), etc. There is also a mural that was painted by one of the rhino trainers that is of the five different rhinos in the world. Also on the wall is a genealogy map that shows the rhinos that had been at AK at one time or another. The keepers (Shana and Nichole) were very enthusiastic about their work and were happy to answer any questions that people had. They talked about the breeding program for rhinos (there is actually a person that is a rhino matchmaker that determines which rhinos get moved where to breed). Generally only male rhinos are moved around (there are five or six white rhinos at AK, I can’t remember if it was five total or five females and one male). None of them are currently pregnant but they’re hoping soon. After they answered our questions they walked us to the outside of the paddock area where there were two white rhinos (Lola and Jao) that were behind the scenes at the moment. They demonstrated some of the training that they were doing and explained why they were working on getting certain behaviors. They made sure to emphasize that they always ASK for a behavior – including coming to the barn at night and sometimes rhinos will not come in and will stay on the safari savannah overnight.
They then allowed us to come up in pairs to pet the rhino on the side. That was awesome. It’s an experience to feel these animals. Their skin has zero give to it. Honestly it felt almost like petting a concrete wall with a little bit of hair on it. We each got a couple of minutes petting the rhino. They did have a sink nearby so that everyone could wash their hands afterwards.
They then answered a few more questions, both about the rhinos and their own background and then we were put back on the bus and brought back to where we came to the backstage area. They asked us to return the lanyards but we could keep the paper that had our name on it that had a drawing of a rhino made by Joe Rohde whose favorite animal is the rhino.
I felt this was a good tour. I would do it again if I was traveling with anyone that hadn’t done it before, especially at the price point. I probably wouldn’t do it again just for me, though.
One more thing to note – there is ZERO shade back at the rhino barn so if it’s really hot or pouring rain be aware that there really isn’t any cover.
