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AKL Jambo - how early are animals out?

S

Snurk71

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 17, 2001
Like the title says - how early are the animals (especially giraffes) out on the savanna at Jambo?

We're considering staying there for one night, but will be arriving super late (midnight) and leaving for a park by 8.30 the next morning. If there's no animals, we'll probably stay elsewhere.

Thanks
 
The animals will stay out all night, unless the animal keepers need to bring in an animal to care for it.

However, every day, the animal keepers will call in all the animals to the "back stage" pens for a routine check up. The keepers do each of the four savannas separately starting at 5:00 AM. The animals are returned to their savanna after about 90 minutes, so the last savanna has its animals returning by 11:00 AM.

I can't recall the order of the savannas, but I think Arusha -- the large savanna at Jambo -- is the last savanna processed each day. But don't take my word on that.
 
As another said they don't really go in and out. Just check up frome time to time and back out.

One trip it seemed like all of them slept right outside my balcony.

It is neat to see them wake up in the morning and curl up at night.
 
OP, I personally would not stay there given the scenario in your post. We love AKV and have spent dozens of nights there. One thing I can tell you is that the animals have their own agenda. There is no predicting when you will see them. There have been mornings where we didn't see any at all. Given your extremely limited time frame, I would not stay there if it were contingent on seeing animals in that small window of opportunity.
 


Splashboat said:
OP, I personally would not stay there given the scenario in your post. We love AKV and have spent dozens of nights there. One thing I can tell you is that the animals have their own agenda. There is no predicting when you will see them. There have been mornings where we didn't see any at all. Given your extremely limited time frame, I would not stay there if it were contingent on seeing animals in that small window of opportunity.
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I agree. You just don't have enough time to appreciate the resort. We try to book at least two nights in a row and get there early on the first day and leave closer to 11 on the last.
 
They used to get called in for check ups and battery replacements daily but they are using the longer life batteries now. :-)

The truth is that their lives revolve around eating and they move and hang out where the food have been placed for them.

:earsboy: Bill
 
One time pre-DVC we were staying in a cash room at Jambo House that was near the barn. The animals showed up each day on their own for their daily check up hours before they were called. There were large numbers of animals hanging out under the trees by our balcony for hours before it was their turn to be called into the barn. I asked a CM who was the Manager in charge of the savanna animals about this and she said that they try to entice the animals to stay in their areas until called, but they decided to show up before hand. The keepers need to ensure that the animals didn't get injured or sick during the 24 hour period since the last check up so they are happy the animals are cooperating.
 


Yes, like the PP said, many times animals are hanging around at the barn long before they get called. What's interesting is that sometimes, depending on your location, you can hear them being called in (bell, whistle, drums, etc.). At the Lunch with the Animal Keeper at Sana, they told us which animals respond to which "cue" and more about the exact timing.
 
Yes each animal has its own sound effect to be called in. Sometimes the keepers bring the food out on the Savannah. Its funny watching Giraffe chasing truck to eat.
 
Do they have giraffes on the savannah at Jambo? I know they do at Kidani. And in my observation as a local who has been out to Kidani many dozens of times, it seems the giraffes don't like to mosey out until close to lunch time. Er, us 2-legged creatures' lunch time that is… :rolleyes:
 
I've stayed at both Jambo and Kidani and didn't see many animals in the morning. I've also done Boma for breakfast and there were not many animals around when we went outside after. We saw the most in the late afternoon.
 
In July I was in a room at Jambo that overlooked the animal "house" on Kudu trail. The animals paraded out all morning, and giraffes were out fairly early. It was a great location with wonderful animal watching.
 
I don't think its possible to predict where the animals will be and when. We have stayed at Jambo a few times and sometimes you see a lot of animals and sometimes you don't. It all depends on where they have decided to roam...just like on a real Savannah.
 
We had a one-night stay at Kidani with a savannah view in 2013 (I rented some points for this) and we arrived mid-afternoon. There were several animals hanging out around the trees below our room for much of the afternoon (we were on the 5th floor, so quite a way up).

I had to get up during the night for a bathroom break, and I tiptoed past my DD's opened out bed settee and stepped out onto the balcony. It was still fairly dark around 5.15am (February) but it was really cool to see 3 or 4 zebras grazing right below our window. Obviously I couldn't take any photos as it was still dark, but it was still a memorable moment for me. And no, I didn't wake OH and DD up to share the view!

I think we'd like to stay there again now we're DVC members, but I think we'll need to book bang on the 7-month mark to get a 1-bedroomed apartment.
 
southerngirl528 said:
Do they have giraffes on the savannah at Jambo? I know they do at Kidani. And in my observation as a local who has been out to Kidani many dozens of times, it seems the giraffes don't like to mosey out until close to lunch time. Er, us 2-legged creatures' lunch time that is… :rolleyes:
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I was there this past January. I was in room 5301, which is on the "left" wing Arusha, 1st room on the third "bead." I saw giraffes all the time, often right off my balcony. That was my third stay at AKL, and I saw a lot more animals than in the previous trips, when I saw mostly Ankole cattle. In fact, the variety and number were so great I conjectured that they had tweaked how they disperse the animals.
 
Hi Carlbarry, it's awesome to have those animals right outside your room isn't it? :) I've used my DVC points to rent a GV Savannah view at Kidani and the giraffes slept almost under our balcony at night! It was amazing!! But it is funny that out of all the mornings I have been out to the Kidani lobby, the giraffes seem to appear later, at least within view of the lobby area. It seems the mountain zebras and wildebeest have usually been out first, at least in my observation from that vantage point.
 
southerngirl528 said:
Hi Carlbarry, it's awesome to have those animals right outside your room isn't it? :) I've used my DVC points to rent a GV Savannah view at Kidani and the giraffes slept almost under our balcony at night! It was amazing!! But it is funny that out of all the mornings I have been out to the Kidani lobby, the giraffes seem to appear later, at least within view of the lobby area. It seems the mountain zebras and wildebeest have usually been out first, at least in my observation from that vantage point.
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It's so amazing to have the giraffes outside your room that that is why I bought DVC! I saw the picture in the Dreams book of a woman reading on her balcony while giraffes walk by, and thought that was astounding.
As for Kidani, I was never impressed before by the animals I would see outside the lobby. I was always there in the afternoon. However, during my visits during my last stay, there were lots of animals . . . again, this added weight to my conjecture that Disney had reconfigured somehow how they deploy the animals. Perhaps they improved the way food is distributed.
 
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