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Received this article from the Disney Insider
Into the misty foothills of the Himalayas go the intrepid explorers, in search of adventure and undiscovered life forms. Who knows what lurks in the remote highlands? Perhaps even the fabled yeti itself!
It's the premise of Disney's Animal Kingdom park's newest attraction, Expedition Everest, set to debut in April; but for a small group of Imagineers, conservation experts, and research biologists, it's also a thrilling reality. Mission: Himalayas unites these different disciplines for two treks of exploration into the remote mountains. The first, exploring in the mountainous regions of southwest China, departed August 16, 2005, and returned September 12. The second leg departed October 23 to explore remote areas of Nepal. The crew is seeking previously unknown species and exploring conservation issues in this mountain paradise. In addition, a camera crew for the Discovery Channel came along to document the adventure.
Between the two expeditions, we caught up with Dr. Anne Savage. She told us about the rigors and delights of the trip, and her hopes for Nepal.
A primatologist, Anne usually spends her time at the Wildlife Tracking Center at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in Orlando, studying animal behavior and reproduction, and managing programs that study wildlife in Florida and beyond. However, she was no stranger to China; one of the thrills of the expedition for her was a chance to revisit an area where she had explored years before.
"We had the opportunity to spend a day visiting and photographing golden monkeys in the Qinling mountains of southwest China," she says. "It was a great opportunity for me, to take the team to a site that I had visited years ago and to meet the people that are helping to protect this endangered monkey. It's the only place on earth where you will find wild golden monkeys that are habituated to the presence of people. We had an up close and personal view of these amazing animals." In fact, one of the researchers they visited had been a student in one of Anne's conservation training workshops during her original visit!
The golden monkeys were exciting to see for other reasons as well, Anne tells us. "The golden monkey was actually one of the inspirations that Imagineer Joe Rohde used to design our yeti here at Expedition Everest, so we went to look at golden monkeys and get some of their features captured on film so people would understand what adaptations these animals have to live in a cold climate. They have a beautiful golden coat and, and their fur is really thick. Their feet and their hands look almost like they're wearing mittens! Their faces are designed to deal with the cold weather as well; they're known as the snub-nosed monkey' because they don't have a large protruding nose, it's just squished-in, close to the skin."
Trekking into the remote mountains allowed the expedition to observe rare wildlife, but it also meant some roughing it along the way. "The most challenging places we worked were when we were with the scientists from Conservation International up in the Ding Guo Shan mountains in the Sichuan province," Anne recalls. "That was high-altitude (11,000 ft), and we had some close calls as we were walking along, having to cross streams, slipping off of rocks." Fortunately, the team returned unscathed.
The expedition encountered so much more than wildlife. "One of the things that was really great about this trip was that we got to meet a lot of fascinating people. We visited a monastery nearby and had the opportunity to chat with many of the people who lived there," says Anne. "What was amazing was their interest and commitment to wanting to preserve the forested areas in China. And that's something that's very important to us at Disney's Animal Kingdom, we are very committed to conservation. We hope that the results from this expedition will enable them to establish the site we surveyed as a protected area."
When the adventure's over, Anne will return to the Wildlife Tracking Center and her own conservation work, from tracking sea-turtle nesting habits to studying cotton-top tamarin monkeys and working to establish a reserve for them in Colombia. The next time you're at Disney's Animal Kingdom, drop by the Wildlife Tracking Center and ask to speak to Dr. Anne - she'll be happy to say hi, and maybe share a few traveler's tales from her Himalayan adventure.
Into the misty foothills of the Himalayas go the intrepid explorers, in search of adventure and undiscovered life forms. Who knows what lurks in the remote highlands? Perhaps even the fabled yeti itself!
It's the premise of Disney's Animal Kingdom park's newest attraction, Expedition Everest, set to debut in April; but for a small group of Imagineers, conservation experts, and research biologists, it's also a thrilling reality. Mission: Himalayas unites these different disciplines for two treks of exploration into the remote mountains. The first, exploring in the mountainous regions of southwest China, departed August 16, 2005, and returned September 12. The second leg departed October 23 to explore remote areas of Nepal. The crew is seeking previously unknown species and exploring conservation issues in this mountain paradise. In addition, a camera crew for the Discovery Channel came along to document the adventure.
Between the two expeditions, we caught up with Dr. Anne Savage. She told us about the rigors and delights of the trip, and her hopes for Nepal.
A primatologist, Anne usually spends her time at the Wildlife Tracking Center at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in Orlando, studying animal behavior and reproduction, and managing programs that study wildlife in Florida and beyond. However, she was no stranger to China; one of the thrills of the expedition for her was a chance to revisit an area where she had explored years before.
"We had the opportunity to spend a day visiting and photographing golden monkeys in the Qinling mountains of southwest China," she says. "It was a great opportunity for me, to take the team to a site that I had visited years ago and to meet the people that are helping to protect this endangered monkey. It's the only place on earth where you will find wild golden monkeys that are habituated to the presence of people. We had an up close and personal view of these amazing animals." In fact, one of the researchers they visited had been a student in one of Anne's conservation training workshops during her original visit!
The golden monkeys were exciting to see for other reasons as well, Anne tells us. "The golden monkey was actually one of the inspirations that Imagineer Joe Rohde used to design our yeti here at Expedition Everest, so we went to look at golden monkeys and get some of their features captured on film so people would understand what adaptations these animals have to live in a cold climate. They have a beautiful golden coat and, and their fur is really thick. Their feet and their hands look almost like they're wearing mittens! Their faces are designed to deal with the cold weather as well; they're known as the snub-nosed monkey' because they don't have a large protruding nose, it's just squished-in, close to the skin."
Trekking into the remote mountains allowed the expedition to observe rare wildlife, but it also meant some roughing it along the way. "The most challenging places we worked were when we were with the scientists from Conservation International up in the Ding Guo Shan mountains in the Sichuan province," Anne recalls. "That was high-altitude (11,000 ft), and we had some close calls as we were walking along, having to cross streams, slipping off of rocks." Fortunately, the team returned unscathed.
The expedition encountered so much more than wildlife. "One of the things that was really great about this trip was that we got to meet a lot of fascinating people. We visited a monastery nearby and had the opportunity to chat with many of the people who lived there," says Anne. "What was amazing was their interest and commitment to wanting to preserve the forested areas in China. And that's something that's very important to us at Disney's Animal Kingdom, we are very committed to conservation. We hope that the results from this expedition will enable them to establish the site we surveyed as a protected area."
When the adventure's over, Anne will return to the Wildlife Tracking Center and her own conservation work, from tracking sea-turtle nesting habits to studying cotton-top tamarin monkeys and working to establish a reserve for them in Colombia. The next time you're at Disney's Animal Kingdom, drop by the Wildlife Tracking Center and ask to speak to Dr. Anne - she'll be happy to say hi, and maybe share a few traveler's tales from her Himalayan adventure.
