Florida Wildlife at WDW

[A Mickeyfan]

They need to hand out Florida wild life pamphlets at the check-in desks at the hotels and the front gates of the parks for all the people who had no idea Florida has animals.

I hope they have signs around the garbage that there may be yellow jacket wasps and you may get stung. That's a larger risk than getting attacked by a gator.

Then you will get those that throw it out and never look and say "well if they told me at the check in desk, I would have read it" society has gotten to where when something happens they look for someone to blame it on.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

As an aside, I can tell you this: we are staying in the Poly bungalows in Nov.

If I see ANYONE feeding ANY wildlife from their little decks I can promise you that I will:

1. TAKE PHOTOS,
2. REPORT THEM ASAP, and
3. FOLLOW UP with management to find out what the consequences were.

I guess we'll see how that goes, if the situation arises. Hope it doesn't -- particularly after they post real warning signs unlike what's there now.

report them to the FWC

As an aside, I can tell you this: we are staying in the Poly bungalows in Nov.

If I see ANYONE feeding ANY wildlife from their little decks I can promise you that I will:

1. TAKE PHOTOS,
2. REPORT THEM ASAP, and
3. FOLLOW UP with management to find out what the consequences were.

I guess we'll see how that goes, if the situation arises. Hope it doesn't -- particularly after they post real warning signs unlike what's there now.

Report them to the FWC
http://myfwc.com/

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Again, many people know there are alligators in Florida. They don't however, expect those to be on Walt Disney World property. And why would they? If you read anything about alligators, it says they prefer swampy/water areas - which WDW is not. Is says that they are generally scared of loud noises - of which WDW has lots. Why WOULD you expect to look over at the snack cart and see an alligator? Also, many people don't realize that the lagoon (which is private, man made) is connected to Bay Lake, without a barrier. I think most people assume there is an underwater barrier to keep the critters out.

Also, you can't compare traveling to Florida with traveling to Africa, at least not for US residents. Most US residents probably don't research potential dangers etc... when traveling within their own country, because they likely have a sense of security in the knowledge of the country they've grown up in - which obviously may not cover everything. But not only that - you're going on a trip to Walt Disney World. You're going to a highly urban, developed resort area, not out in to the wilds of Africa. Most people honestly aren't going to think there's a need to research dangerous wildlife.

Sick and tired of the high and mighty attitudes of some people, and their belittling assumptions.

Please forgive me, but if you know there are gators in FL,know they are in the water, which you stated...why would you not expect them in the waters at Walt Disney World, FLORIDA? ??? Even if you hadn't known that Disney was built on swamp, you still knew water and FL?

 

[Bay_Lake_Tower]

There are too many people like the ones we saw at Epcot feeding the birds near Mexico while standing right next to the sign that said DO NOT FEED BIRDS.

It's okay though, Disney sprinkles their pixie dust on any birds on property so all that happens if you feed them is Mousekeeping getting some new little helpers cleaning hotel rooms.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Walt Disney World Guest Relations P.O. Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Walt Disney World Guest Communications PO Box 10040
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-0040


wdw.guest.communications@disneyworld.com

Robert A. Iger Chief Executive Officer
The Walt Disney Company
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873


Bob Chapek
Chairman
Walt Disney Parks & Resorts
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4873

Karl L. Holz
President New Vacation Operations and Disney Cruise Line
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830

Mr. George Kalogridis
President, Walt Disney World Resort
PO Box 10000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000

Aren't you just so helpful! I have all of this, thanks. I'm talking about reporting any specific incidents I witness.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Then you will get those that throw it out and never look and say "well if they told me at the check in desk, I would have read it" society has gotten to where when something happens they look for someone to blame it on.

Agreed, for the most part.

Just a few days ago, DISers bemoaned the vast number of visitors who know nothing of Fastpass.
Fastpass is a free program that benefits guests, so there's a pretty STRONG motivation for guests to USE it.

Yet a great many don't.

I could list a great many things that guests ignore like the age old joke of asking a CM, "what time does the 3pm parade start?" Or the ample number of trash cans all over property, the one hour time stamp of their FP, posted check out times....


WDW can't even get guests to mind their own body space. I can't tell you how many times I've been stepped on, hit, shoved, had my foot run over, had a gate slammed in my face.....

What percentage of hotel guests know where the emergency exits are located, even though, per FL law, it is posted inside EVERY hotel door?

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I guess my bottom line is this: if some would prefer to just stop at calling people "crazy" on an unofficial Disney board for not knowing all of this, they're certainly free to.

I want Disney to post WARNING signs as other properties do and as they appear to be PLANNING to do now. Common sense at this point.

If I SEE someone doing something DANGEROUS (eg feeding gators), I will SAY something to Disney management. Seems the RESPONSIBLE thing to do.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

Some of the posters here, just wow. There seems to be a stunning lack of knowledge about biology.

The world is full of food webs and ecosystems. There are herbivores on the bottom, and carnivores on the top. Call it the Circle of Life! Carnivores eat herbivores.

Like it or not, WDW offers animals of all kinds, an easy banquet.

The same elements that draw humans: ample water and ample food, ALSO draws just about everything else that lives in the Florida ecosystem.

Where there is grass, rodents and insects, there's probably something that EATS grass, rodents, and insects.

A sign asking folks not to hand gators food isn't going to change that. Every day, thousands of people thoughtlessly drop food everywhere at WDW. Where there are ants and roaches, there will be lizards, and so it goes.

Truly, we should all be glad the ecosystem is as robust as it is. Animals that eat trash and rodents are some of our best friends.

You do realize it's illegal to feed a gator in FL? Yeah, maybe those signs should go up and violations need to be given out to help cover the cost of all the new warnings going up.
http://www.sno-bird.com/dontfeed.htm

 

[grnflash]

Some of the posters here, just wow. There seems to be a stunning lack of knowledge about biology.

There's no stunning lack of knowledge about biology. We know alligators are dangerous wild animals prevelant in Florida.

What we didn't know (well I didn't know) was how close possible contact could be by a large enough alligator to snatch a child wading in inches of water at a well-known, not wild, not off-the-beaten-path, very populated beach of a man made lagoon which at the time was manned by WDW staff with no direct warnings and no staff asking the action to stop. That's the wildlife danger I didn't know existed when we visited and frankly don't feel dumb one bit for not knowing.

I apply different common sense when researching a swamp tour than attending a Disney-sponsored activity at WDW. I also behave differently in those environments, precluding any warnings. Had there been any direct indication this could happen, even a sign directly saying stay out of water, then sure, I might say wow about the parents letting it happen. Instead, there was a very, very uncommon danger (to most everyone not living in the South or smart enough to study biology and animal behavior before their trip) that guests weren't directly made aware of and/or stopped from engaging in behavior that put them at risk. I find that a bit wow.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

It is not only dangerous but also illegal to feed gators in the State of FL
Maybe when someone sees a guests and reports it to a CM, let them know that you are aware a law is being broken and wish for authoritiesto be called. Contact the FWC yourself too. Disney need to stop this practice and start allowing fines to be handed out. It took them years to allow local LEO on their roads to ticket speeders, now they need to start with this.
Here is a brief explanation of the law:
http://www.sno-bird.com/dontfeed.htm

That gator more than likely was hand fed at some point. Gators will not come up to you unless they view you as food. Only way they do that is by being hand fed. You want Disney to do something, start fining the culprits who are creating the monsters. We can coexist with gators if we stay out of their waters and do not feed. They will not chase you on land if you are not bothering them, and they were never hand fed...ask any golfer

 

[mickeyluv'r]

You do realize it's illegal to feed a gator in FL? Yeah, maybe those signs should go up and violations need to be given out to help cover the cost of all the new warnings going up.

Alligators are opportunistic feeders. Their diets include prey species that are abundant and easily accessible. Juvenile alligators eat primarily insects, amphibians, small fish, and other invertebrates. Adult alligators eat rough fish, snakes, turtles, small mammals, and birds.

From the How Stuff Works website: Alligators will eat almost anything they can capture. They will eat almost anything that wanders by.... even deer....

Please allow me to spell this out more clearly. Bay lake has fish. Bay Lake has insects. Bay Lake has birds. Bay Lake has plenty of food to keep a gator happy.

Direct handouts aside, the thousands of humans that descend on WDW every day provide a buffet for roaches, rodents, and birds.

Gators eat almost anything (of size) that happens to run or swim past their mouth.

 

[mshanson3121]

Please forgive me, but if you know there are gators in FL,know they are in the water, which you stated...why would you not expect them in the waters at Walt Disney World, FLORIDA? ??? Even if you hadn't known that Disney was built on swamp, you still knew water and FL?

The answer to your question was in the very post that you quoted.

 

[Guyton dis lover]

just the gator and wildlife experts.

there are around 1.3 million gators in FL. even if disney's special ops team mur-diddly-urdered every gator on property (no doubt while whistling "the circle of life"), there might be another gator that made its way down the connected waterways to a resort beach before they spotted it. what you are suggesting is impossible, at least, according to those FL wildlife experts who have been interviewed...

Years ago I saw a picture of a gator climbing a six foot kennel to get to the dog inside. Gators are a killing machine. They will attack you , your dog , your cat your child. Now do I think we should kill every gator. No we must use reasonable method to control all wild life. Like I have said this is very tragic and it is what it is. My heart goes out to this family.

 

[Duckiedee]

Just how do these posts end up trickling down to a board of insults... I just don't get it.

Kindness matters.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Again, I am stunned.

Disney makes no secret of this information:
Disney World in Florida is the size of a large town. Its 40 square miles make it the equivalent of San Francisco. That breaks down to more than 25,000 acres, 25 percent of which is permanently set aside as wilderness preserve land. Less than 35 percent of Disney World's land has been developed so far.

WDW touts this all over AK, and posts it in all their hotel rooms.

Further, you can SEE undeveloped land from both monorails and most buses.

There's nothing remotely secret about WDW's Wilderness Preserve Land.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Just how do these posts end up trickling down to a board of insults... I just don't get it.

Kindness matters.

This is a heated topic.

DISers can get heated up about almost anything. You should have seen the threads about ordering a double bun (for double burgers at the QS places in MK) as a cheap way to get an extra $.02 of lettuce.

There's also the epic threads about reusing a soda cup too many times.

Part of the challenge is also that tone is hard to convey. Saying please nicely is very different from YELLING the same word. In type, words often READ more charged than they sound when spoken.

 

[Kristine316]

Maybe it's time to look at this from a different perspective?

A major U.S. Company decides to build a huge new resort area... They choose to build it on a huge swamp with lots of rodents, snakes and yes... Alligators. Then they beg people to come from all over the world and charge thousands of dollars to vacation there. I'm sorry but, Disney has a responsibility to protect their guests from the habitat surrounding them. It's like if you invite someone to your home knowing there are large bears in your back yard but, you never properly warn your guests to not go in the back yard. Trust me a lawyer would be all over that.

And now we are learning that Disney was warned from their own employees that guests were feeding the gators from the villas and what a risk this presented. It sounds like those warnings were ignored. Why? If it's illegal to feed alligators in Florida then why would Disney ignore this? If it was because they didn't want to make waves and upset the guests paying big bucks for the villas.. Shame on Disney if that's true!! No excuse! And shame on those who fed the alligators!!
It just proves though how stupid many people are and that Disney needs to hand hold and be extremely viligant with everything concerning the safety of their guests. Because even one guest's stupidity can lead to another guest meeting a tragic end.

This has bothered me so much. I can't even imagine the horror this family has gone through!


I get that some people want to defend Disney no matter what but, in this case Disney bares at least some responsibility for this tragedy and they will have to pay for it.

 

[Kristine316]

Again, I am stunned.

Disney makes no secret of this information:
Disney World in Florida is the size of a large town. Its 40 square miles make it the equivalent of San Francisco. That breaks down to more than 25,000 acres, 25 percent of which is permanently set aside as wilderness preserve land. Less than 35 percent of Disney World's land has been developed so far.

WDW touts this all over AK, and posts it in all their hotel rooms.

Further, you can SEE undeveloped land from both monorails and most buses.

There's nothing remotely secret about WDW's Wilderness Preserve Land.

This argument would be very good except in this case it doesn't make any difference. This little boy didn't wander off into some undeveloped area of the resort. He was on a beach wading in a tiny amount of water. A beach that was busy and well utilized by Disney. Disney shows movies on this beach and encourages families to sit on it and enjoy it. And an alligator came up and snatched this poor child.. How on earth could anyone imagine that happening?!! And if someone argues that the parents should have known and understood that risk all I have to say to that is... Bull. The vast majority of WDW guests would never even think of something that horrific happening because they wouldn't have a clue that gators were being fed by other guests and had lost their natural fear of people in that area. But According to reports Disney WAS well aware of this fact.

 

[maxiesmom]

This argument would be very good except in this case it doesn't make any difference. This little boy didn't wander off into some undeveloped area of the resort. He was on a beach wading in a tiny amount of water. A beach that was busy and well utilized by Disney. Disney shows movies on this beach and encourages families to sit on it and enjoy it. And an alligator came up and snatched this poor child.. How on earth could anyone imagine that happening?!! And if someone argues that the parents should have known and understood that risk all I have to say to that is... Bull. The vast majority of WDW guests would never even think of something that horrific happening because they wouldn't have a clue that gators were being fed by other guests and had lost their natural fear of people in that area. But According to reports Disney WAS well aware of this fact.

To be precise, the movies are not shown on the beach right next to the water. They are listed as being shown by the pool there. I won't get into the argument again about what the No Swimming signs mean or how people interpret them.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

This was on YouTube