Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Welcomes a Female Zebra Foal

A female zebra foal has been born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, the resort hotel at Walt Disney World near Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Disney announced the birth and said the foal now lives with the herd on the hotel’s Arusha savanna.

The foal’s mother is a zebra named Aziza. Disney posted photos of the pair on its social media pages, and the information came from Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment team, the group that looks after the animals at the resort.

What Disney has announced so far

The announcement was short. Disney confirmed the foal is female, named her mother and said she had already joined the rest of the herd. The company described the birth as recent but did not give a date.

The baby zebra does not have a public name yet. Disney has not said when it will share one.

A busy season for baby animals at Disney World

The zebra is the newest in a run of animal births at Walt Disney World over the past few months, according to FOX Orlando, which reported the news based on Disney’s release.

• Animal Kingdom Lodge recently welcomed three nyala calves. Nyala are a type of African antelope.
• Over at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park, an albino wallaby joey named Quartz arrived at Jumping Junction. A joey is a baby wallaby or kangaroo, and an albino animal has little or no color in its fur and skin.
• The female zebra foal born to Aziza is the latest addition.

Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Animal Kingdom park are separate places. The lodge is a Disney resort hotel with its own savanna areas, while Jumping Junction is inside the theme park.

What it means for families planning a Disney trip

For families with young kids, new animals are one of the easier things to plan around on a Disney vacation. The zebra foal is part of the Arusha savanna herd at the hotel, so she lives on the lodge grounds and not inside a theme park.

Disney has not said how often the foal will be out on the savanna or when guests are most likely to see her. The company did not share any viewing schedule. Families hoping to spot the new zebra can watch Disney’s social media pages, where the company posted the first photos of the foal with Aziza.

The births also give parents an easy way to start a conversation with kids before a trip. Children can look up what zebras, nyala and wallabies are, where those animals come from in the wild and how baby animals stay close to their mothers in the first months of life.

What is still unknown

Several details have not been released. Disney has not shared the foal’s name, her exact birth date or her size. The company also has not said whether more births are expected at the lodge or the park in the coming months.

The first announcement came from Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment team, which released the news together with the photos of Aziza and her daughter.

Sources: FOX 35 Orlando, Yahoo