DISNEY: Huge expansion of Magic Kingdom is in the works
ORLANDO
Disney has confirmed what one executive said would “probably be the largest expansion ever” of the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, a project that has been dubbed “beyond Big Thunder.”
At a Walt Disney Imagineering media event this past week, Michael Hundgen, a Walt Disney World site portfolio executive, said the plan is to expand the world’s most popular theme park by 12 to 14 acres. Magic Kingdom added 11 acres with its New Fantasyland project, which was completed with the opening of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster in 2012.
Details are thin about the expansion. There have been no official announcements about a theme or a timeline.
“I think they’re being a little coy,” said Dennis Speigel, the founder and CEO of International Theme Park Services. “I think they kind of spoon-feed us some of this stuff — keep us on track and off track.”
Speigel maintains his thinking that Disney World will announce the development of its fifth theme park within the next two years.
“I believe everything they say is strategically thought through before it comes out,” he said.
Walt Disney Co. recently settled lawsuits over Disney World’s governing district with Gov. Ron DeSantis, lifting some obstacles that could have delayed future projects. This week, CEO Robert Iger said that resulted in a “winwin” situation for future Disney World endeavors, as the company embarks on $60 billion worth of improvements worldwide in the coming years.
“There’s a lot they could do back there,” said Michele Atwood, the owner of the Main Street Mouse website, of the land beyond Big Thunder. Some fans favor a home for Disney villains, and others hope for a “Frozen” land or a “Tangled” ride for the site, she said.
“I think that because of Epic Universe, [Disney fans] want to see more than something that’s just a new ride or a new addition or changes to something that’s existing,” Atwood said.
“So I think that maybe it’s time and maybe it is timely that [Disney’s] talking about it now,” she said.
Epic Universe, Universal Orlando’s third theme park, is under construction a few miles
sions of the U.S. agricultural industry. Pythons poop every few days to even weeks, and if they do pass gas, it’s much, much less.
So while snake farms supplanting cattle ranches across Florida may seem far-fetched, lead study author Daniel Natusch finds the prospect of commercial python production intriguing.
“Theoretically, it can absolutely be scaled,” Natusch, the executive director of the research consulting firm Epic Biodiversity, told the Miami Herald in a phone call from Cairns, Australia. “It would hugely reduce not just emissions but create resilience in our agricultural systems, and it would cost less to be producing these animals.”
In fact, the pythons in the study published in Scientific Report were actually farm-raised in Thailand and Vietnam, where the snake is a delicacy and part of the culinary culture. Natusch himself also has sampled python barbecued, slowcooked, sauteed and as curry and jerky. He described it as a white meat with the texture of calamari with a taste he likens to chicken. Not unlike alligator, which is on more than a few Florida menus.
The study reflects a broadening search for more climate-friendly sustainable protein sources. There has been a great deal of research interest, for instance, in a variety of bugs, which are already commonly consumed in some countries. In comparison, Natusch believes snake meat would seem to have a better shot at catching on in the Western world.
“It’s more palatable, unlike cricket or something. It’s more akin to what we’re used to. We’re not chewing through the legs of bugs,” he said. “The biggest barrier is getting people’s heads around it.”
PROTEIN ADVANTAGE
As potential livestock, the study found, pythons have some significant advantages over cattle, pigs, chicken and even bugs. One key difference: Warm-blooded animals use 80-90% of the energy they get from food just to keep warm. Cold-blooded reptiles, on the other hand, maintain body temperature from outside forces, like basking in the sun or lolling on warm rocks. That allows them, Natusch said, to use much more of the energy they get from food to grow bigger and longer.
They also don’t need much space and don’t eat often — generally only once a week — and they can go months without drinking, keeping hydrated by dew on their skin.
Unlike cattle, however, pythons don’t feed on sustainable growth like grass. They are carnivores that eat animals and eggs. But researchers used what would have otherwise gone into the garbage, like captured rodents, minced chicken heads and stillborn pigs and made sausages from them. Pythons also have a strong digestive system that can break down even bones.
“Pretty much they’re long, thin garbage bags that are basically recycling a lot of waste,” Natusch said.
Scientists also are starting trials mixing 50% plant soy into the sausages. The snakes, Natusch said, grew just as big and just as fast.
“They just don’t know. It’s like hiding broccoli in a big pie,” Natusch said.
NOT RECOMMENDED
The findings of the study, unfortunately, don’t mean much for Florida’s efforts to control the pythons in the wild.
For one thing, while it’s legal to eat wild-caught python meat in Florida, that’s definitely not recommended by state officials.
Conventional livestock mostly eat grains and grass, and meat products are routinely tested and inspected. That’s not the case with pythons caught in Florida marshes. Some Burmese pythons removed from the Everglades had mercury levels 100 times too high for human consumption. Many other creatures in the Everglades, including freshwater fish like largemouth bass, also have similar health warnings to limit consumption. But captured pythons, at the top of the food chain, are listed as unsafe to eat by both the Florida Department of
Health and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
While some python hunters have eaten Florida snakes and restaurants have dabbled in exotic offerings like python pizza over the years, no commercial sale of snake meat is allowed. So anybody thinking of starting a commercial python farm or facility — they are sometimes raised in special warehouses in Asia — would face a lot of regulatory resistance. For instance, the state of Florida has already banned the importation of Burmese python, and a few other giant constrictors, and they are no longer allowed to be kept as pets or bred for commercial sale.
A special permit is required to even keep a live python, said McKayla Spencer, nonnative fish and wildlife program coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The only reason they’re allowed to survive has to be for research purposes or for studies that could help eradicate the species.
Natusch, however, believes its likely the “horse has bolted” in terms of Everglades invasion by the snakes, so the threat from commercial operations seems far less serious.
“Having a farm that might have one or two escapees wouldn’t be the end of the world, because the worlds already ended as far as snake issues,” he said.
It should be noted, however, that among the various theories of how the snakes spread in the first place is that some escaped from South Miami-Dade commercial pet breeders whose facilities were damaged during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The other probable cause is releases by owners whose pets grew too large to house or feed. The snakes easily reach 10 feet in a few years. In July, a 19-footer weighing nearly 200 pounds was caught in the Big Cypress National Preserve in Southwest Florida — the state record to date. So the idea of warehouses full of slithering snakes in a hurricane zone seems like the set-up for a very bad B-movie.
For the FWC, which contracts python hunters to find, report and kill these snakes for at least $50 a piece, anything that results in more snakes being pulled from marshes, swamps and forests is a good thing. “Every python removed from the Florida environment helps to protect native wildlife and habitats,” Spencer said.
But nobody thinks hunters could catch enough to produce a steady supply of food, even without the mercury concerns. Finding a a master of camouflage like the Burmese python in the Everglades sometimes can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.