Kilimanjaro Safaris is a safari attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom on the Walt Disney World Resort property in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It simulates an open-sided safari ride through the savanna of East Africa. Attraction Story The attraction simulates a short photo safari aboard a safari vehicle through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve in Harambe, East Africa. While traveling through the large, open exhibit, the game driver points out animals and provides entertainment. Various African animal species appear as if they could come right up to the tourists, though there are cleverly disguised fences and boundaries to ensure guest safety. Animals History Long before the safari or even Walt Disney World opened, Walt Disney wanted to use real African animals for the river attraction Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. However, for several reasons, Audio-Animatronics replicas were placed instead. The ride originally included a scripted portion where the safari truck - callsign "Simba-1" - would be contacted by a habitat warden and a scientist to hunt down poachers that had captured a mother elephant and her child - Big Red and Little Red, respectively. The poachers would have been captured at gunpoint by another cast member acting as a warden. This element of the attraction was eventually eliminated and replaced with scaring off the poachers after a pursuit. During Cast Previews of Disney's Animal Kingdom, there was a "Dark Ending" in which the safari vehicle encountered the corpse of Big Red. She was on the ground, symbolizing that the poachers got to her and the tour group was too late to save the mother elephant. Despite being only a statue, this scene proved too shocking for families and children. Many complaints were filed, so Disney removed the simulated corpse to give the attraction a happier ending. Kilimanjaro Safaris typically operates until sundown. However, during the holiday season of 1998, the safaris were continued at night and dubbed Kilimanjaro Night Safaris. Though many animals were asleep, or unable to be seen at night, the attraction had a completely different script and storyline. This "new" attraction featured additional animal sounds, reflectors hidden in the foliage to resemble animals' eyes, and an actual African dance troupe, who performed around a bonfire in the area normally occupied by the attraction's elephants. Kilimanjaro Night Safaris only ran during that initial holiday season. After this time, it was deemed that the additional costs, plus the fact that animal visibility