Photo TR: Jungala Media Day at Busch Gardens Africa

[live2tell75]

Hello everyone! I had the great honor of representing TPR at today's Jungala Media Day at Busch Gardens Africa. It was an amazing time! The new addition to Busch Gardens Africa is awesome! I started out my adventure arriving a the park at 6:45 in the morning. I checked in at the media tent and got my bag of goodies: A Jungala press kit including a folder with everything you need to know about Jungala, a back pack, stationary and pen, t-shirt, DVD and photo CD. This was pretty cool since this was my first time ever being part of the "media". I met with my media ambassador host, Laura. Laura was a fantastic guide and a major help throughout the day. Onto the photos!

The main village of Jungala.

Cool animal stone statues.

At the Stanleyville side Jungala entrance

A overview of Jungala seen from the Skyride.

All about the creatures that make up Jungala.

As it says at the top, it's the Jungala fact sheet.

Overview of Jungala.

Let's take a look inside.

The Jungala press folder.

I checked in around 6:45 am.

Where to start off the adventure? The tigers sound good!

[live2tell75]

Bengal Tiger Habitat

 

First up Laura and I checked out one of the main elements of Jungala, The Bengal Tiger Exhibit. Growing up, when visiting Busch Gardens Africa I always enjoyed Claw Island, home to four Bengal Tigers. For those that never got to see Claw Island, it was a good size tiger habitat with a few bridge-viewing areas set in the heart of the Congo section of the park. When Disney’s Animal Kingdom debuted their The Maharajah Jungle Trek attraction in the Asian section of the park in late 1999, I fell in love with their Tiger exhibit. Disney’s tiger exhibit brought guests close to the tigers through viewing windows that were surrounded by highly elaborate Asian themed architecture. It was one of my favorite animal exhibits in any park, until now.

 

At Jungala, the new Bengal Tiger habitat in my opinion blows any other tiger exhibit away. You begin entering The Tiger Lodge, an enclosed air-condioned large viewing area of the one of the 2 tiger habitats. The Tiger Lodge has plenty of views of the 12 Bengal Tigers. Yep, they now have 12 tigers total, which is a pretty large collection for a zoo. Lots of positives about The Tiger Lodge: There are many different angles of the glass windows to see the animals. It’s air-condioned so it’s a great place to escape form the brutal Florida heat or crazy thunderstorms. The lodge will also be used for Busch Garden’s family sleepovers and adventure camps. I don’t know about you, but being able to sleep next to the tigers would be pretty awesome! The lodge also features the Jungala “giving Wall mural. By purchasing a bead from the adjacent gift shop in the lodge, you help donate towards the Busch Gardens/Sea World Conservation Fund. Once you have your bead, you place it on the rainforest mural. The idea is that once the rainforest mural is complete, all the beads represent a small part in helping with conservation.

 

After The Tiger Lodge you take a trek on The Tiger Trials. The trails include many different elements. The first part of the trail winds through a cave with large viewing windows on either side overlooking the 2 tiger habitats. The best part of the cave is that there is a glass bridge that connects between the 2 exhibits that travels directly above the trail. The zoo exhibit educators can open both sides of the bridge to let the tigers travel between, or just open one side of the bridge. It was awesome to view one, two or three tigers walking or just sitting above the park guests walking on the trail.

 

The next part of the trail features the “tiger tug-of-war”. During the media day, the “tiger tug-of-war” was not being demonstrated. From talking to one of the exhibit educators, he explained that the tug-of-war would be a demonstration conducted with zoo educators and park volunteers. The park guests will be specifically picked based on which tiger wants to participate. 2 large guests might be picked to participate when a more aggressive tiger is on the other end. A smaller park guest may be picked when a playful tiger is on the other end. Don’t expect to always be able to experience this. The main factor will be if the tiger wants to participate. It should be interesting to see/experience when it happens.

 

A unique part of The Tiger Trails is an underwater cave tunnel that guests can stoop down and travel through. This gives park guests perfect views of when the tigers decide to take swim in their large plunge pool. This was very cool! Once you get through the underwater tunnel, you come up to a cave with a ladder. One or two park guests can climb to the top and experience what it is like to be in the middle of the habitat. Basically the park calls it the Tiger Pop-U p. It’s a bubble that sticks out of the ground and guest’s heads are in the middle of everything! It was pretty cool. The only thing that I noticed that there wasn’t very much air and it was pretty hot. But then again you’re probably not going to be in there for a long period of time anyways.

 

The rest of The Tiger Trails give fantastic views of the multi-level habitats. The tigers were very active through the exhibit. They were coming up to the glass windows and seemed very curious of all the new visitors. It is a really surreal experience to be that close. They are such beautiful creatures and so big! I could spend hours just hanging out in this exhibit! I cannot wait to go back to this area.

 

More reviews, captions and my thoughts of the rest of Jungala coming soon! Stay tuned!

Don't move! There is a tiger behind you!

Yep the white tiger is still stalking me!

This underwater tunnel will give guests a perfect view of the tigers taking a swim.

Stairway down to the underwater tunnel.

The hole in the fence represents were the tiger-tug-of-war experience will be.

Total stalker!

I have a feeling the white tiger was stalking me.

The awesome bridge connecting the 2 habitats.

I love this photo. The little girl had no idea that the tiger ran up and was behind her!

One of the tigers coming out of the glass bridge in the cave.

I just want pet it!

The tigers seemed very interested in all of the guest activities. Hope they have been fed!

Don't you just want give it a hug! Ok maybe that might not be a great idea. I want to keep all my limbs. =p

Did I mention that you get really close.

Absolutely gorgeous!

I spy a tiger!

Very lush.

Let's explore The Tiger Trail.

[live2tell75]

Cont.

The Bengal Bistro's seating area.

The Bengal Bistro, a new eating spot, formally The Vivi Restaurant. Also for the media event, Busch provided everyone with a pretty yummy hot breakfast buffet set up in front of the restaurant.

The "Giving Wall"

The Jungala gift shop, complete with a little tiger viewing area in the trunk of the tree.

Tiger Lodge, home to great viewing areas and the Adventure camps sleep-overs.

The Tiger-Pop-Up

[live2tell75]

After a bite to eat from a yummy breakfast buffet provided, Laura and I checked out the main village area of Jungala. This area features upbeat tribal music, colorful costumed stilt wakers and zoo educators giving park guests the opportunity to touch and learn about rare exotic animals.

One of the Jungle Flyer Ziplines flying over the village.

The main central area of Jungala.

A group of the colorful stilt walkers.

Hands on interactions with the animals.

[live2tell75]

The Media Presentaion

 

After exploring the village, it was time for the media program to begin. The event started with a parade of the colorful stilt walkers followed by the day's speakers: Donnie Mills: Executive VP & GM of Busch Gardens Africa, Mark Rose: VP of Design & Engineering, Glenn Young: VP of Zoological Operations and Virginia M. Busch, President of the Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund and Conservation Ambassador for the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks. The speakers elaborated on the meaning of Jungala, basically it is a celebration of all the creatures that make up the wild. To view a video of the complete media event click on this link: http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=46873 and it will take you to The Worlds of Discovery website. After the speakers were finished, everyone counted down, and a burst of confetti and high energy music filled the air. And about 100 school kids attacked and experienced the next stop on our tour, The Treetop Trails.

The colorful parade kicks off the media event.

A rider shows off The Jungle Flyers, over Mark Rose's head. Mark is the Vice President of Design & Engineering.

I thought it is really cool how Virginia, is continuing the legacy of her family name in helping with conservation.

Virginia M. Busch, President of the Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund and Conservation Ambassador for the Anheuser-Busch Adventure Parks. Between the Worlds of Discovery Parks: Busch Gardens, Sea World, Discovery Cove and Aquatica they care for the largest collection of animals in the world - 50,000 animals!

Press from all over the world was here to check out Jungala.

Glenn Young, Vice President of Zoological Operations.

Executive Vice President and General Manager of Busch Gardens Africa, Donnie Mills.

After a countdown, Jungala officially opens to a colorful musical explosion of festivities!

[live2tell75]

The Tree Top Trails

 

After the media event we explored the large play area geared for tweens, The Tree Top Trails. This is a wonderful play area for kids of all ages. Tree Top Trails features climbing nets, rope bridges, caves, cargo mazes, water elements, and a toddler area. The play area is mult-layered, so guests can explore the many different levels of jungle life. For the media event, workers were busy putting the final touches to a few of the smaller animal habitats in this area. Set within The Tree Top Trails is the Kulu Canopy. This animal exhibit features northern white-checked crested gibbons, flying foxes and gharials (crocodilians with long narrow snouts). Many areas on the different levels of The Tree Top Trails give guests unique and excellent viewing opportunities to see the animals. An example: on the third level, there is a cave that ends with a glass viewing bubble that rests on a tree branch in the middle of the gibbon's habitat.

 

Located within The Tree Top Trails are 2 rides: The Wild Surge and The Jungle Flyers. Wild Surge is a frog hopper set in a very cool theme. It bursts out of a rock cave and peaks over a waterfall. The second ride, The Jungle Flyers is a series of 3 zip lines that take young guests high over Jungala and then back. This should be popular with the kids. Just a warning: The Jungle Flyers is intended for kids. In order to ride, guests have to be under the age of 13 and weigh less than 220lbs. During the media day, the zip line was used during the media presentation, but did not open to the other guests. If it hasn’t opened yet, it should open any day now.

 

I feel that The Tree Top Trails is a great addition for the family. Busch Gardens has the large play area for children in Land of the Dragons. Now there is a play area for that in- between-age. The too young for Sheikra, but too old for the Land of the Dragoons. I think this area will be a big hit. The area really makes you feel like you are one with nature.

It does look pretty cool shooting above the rocks and the waterfall (which is on the other side).

Wild Surge frog hopper

No Jungle Flyers today. =(

Because the toddler play area is under shade, this should be nice for families during the hotter days.

A toddler play area

The kids seemed to really love the water elements.

Water playgrounds are a wise feature in any kid's area in Florida.

The whole area was very cool with its many different levels.

All the kids seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Did I mention there are a lot of rope bridges?

This area features lots of cargo nets and bridges.

The Tree Top Trails are set deep within Jungala.

Time to check out The Tree Top Trails

The Tree Top Trails is fun for kids of all ages!

Themed drums for kids to make tribal music with.

[live2tell75]

Orangutan Outpost:

Along with the Tiger Trails habitat, The Orangutan Outpost is the other main large animal exhibit in Jungala. If you had visited Busch Gardens Africa in the past, you might remember they had a small orangutan exhibit located where Sheikra is now. Their new home is gorgeous! They so much room to roam around. From swinging from the trees, testing on top of the large outpost towers, or getting up close to the viewing areas, I think the orangutans are enjoying their new home. You can view these animals in a few different areas. Outside you can have a great view of the large outpost towers that the orangutans like to sit on top of. Or you visit inside the air-conditioned viewing area. Like the tiger exhibit, this has large viewing windows that overlook the habitat. But the best part of this area, there is a glass window in the floor. A rope hammock is attached to the underside of the floor. This allows guests to get very close to the orangutans. As you can see in the following photos, I was lucky enough to see one of the animals hanging out in the rope hammock and interacting with park guests. The orangutans were so cute! This will be another area of the Jungala I could spend a long time in.

Check out when the boy put his hand to the glass, the orangutan met his hand to the glass!

If you don't smile when you see these animals, then you are evil!!!

So cute!!!

This makes for awesome up-close interactions with the orangutans.

As you can see, there is a glass panel in the floor with a rope hammock attached to the floor.

But the best part of this exhibit is inside the Orangutan Outpost's viewing building.

The Orangutan Outpost, unlike the their previous home, is very large.

The orangutans have a fantastic new habitat.

Final stop, The Orangutan Outpost.

Like the tiger exhibit, the Orangutan Outpost is a must-see when visiting Jungala.

They seemed happy having a bird's eye view over Jungala.

One of a few high posts for the orangutans.

[live2tell75]

Random final photos.

The media event was an awesome experience. Thanks to Robb and Elissa for letting me cover this event. Jungala is amazing! If you really want to get up close to a tiger or explore a jungle, then go check out Jungala at Busch Gardens Africa! Thanks for reading!

Thank you Laura for being such an awesome host!

My complete Jungala collection of goodies.

The backside featured a schedule of the events for the day.

My media event Jungala press pass.

A Busch Gardens Africa DVD featuring promotional videos of some of the rides. Also a Jungala photo disc (which I'm sad to say doesn't work) =( I tried on both my Mac and Kevin's PC.

Jungala shirt.

Not just a notebook but a cool planner too!

A cool notebook.

For attending the media event, I received a lot of cool Jungala goodies like this backpack.

A different camera angle of Sheikra

You know it's Spring Break when The Scorpion has a line the extends outside!!!!

Yeah for the water portion of Rhino Rally!

[RCFreak]

dude that looks awesome! I'm sad I missed it by about a month, but that's just another thing for me to go back for!

[arrowfanman]

Wow, that looks great! I don't forgive them for obliterating Python, but I cant deny that it looks nice. Thanks for posting Eric!

 

 

 

Looks like just the kind of internal improvement that more parks should be focusing on. I think everything looks beautiful except for the rather unflattering Jungla Flyers loading platform.

 

 

 

-Jahan

[Moose]

I am shocked at how much the animals seem to love going up to the glass.

 

The place looks beautiful, thanks for the update.

[cfc]

Jungala looks great, Eric--thanks for the sneak peek. I think their set-up for viewing the tigers is better than Disney's at Animal Kingdom (at least from the pics and description). How does the "tiger tug-of-war" thing work?

[PKI Jizzman]

Wow, Jungula looks really, really nice! The whole atmosphere looks like it fits the theme, with alot of things to do! The zip line and whole play area looks like alot of great fun!

[Erik Johnson]

Wow, thanks for posting these Eric. I am also really impressed how close you can get to the animals. I will probably spend a lot of time in the tiger area.

[kraken613]

Wow that whole thing looks really good! It really blends in well!

A nice addition!

[alpengeist04]

The area as a whole looks great. The tigers look just as interested in us as we are in them.

 

Great job on the pictures Eric, I look forward to the review this weekend.

[cfc]

^The tigers are thinking, "Hmm--they look pretty tasty."

[alpengeist04]

^Yea, that's what I was thinking. They probably wait to feed them till after the guests leave the park.

[YoshiFan]

Looks like they are expecting the zip lines to be popular with those switchbacks. That is probably going to be a huge wait with only 3 riders at a time (or is it more than that with multiple riders on each zip line?)

[coaster05]

The tiger thing doesn't suprise me. Even at my small local zoo you can get that close to the tigers. They seem to enjoy it as our white tiger really enjoys scaring people. Looks great, Thanks Eric.

[TheRapidsNerd]

I don't forgive them for obliterating Python, but I cant deny that it looks nice.

 

Well spoken Jahan.

 

This, like Nick Universe, turned out much better than expected. Glad to be wrong about it.

[Meteornotes]

Cool pics, especially the tiger ones. Cats rule. The whole area looks nice. Thanks for the report.

 

dt

[crazydaveh]

Quality stuff.

 

Free AB Beer with tigers and orangutans!

[CoasterComet]

Great pictures! I love that park.

 

I'm not exactly a PETA member, yet, but I can't help but thinking about the welfare of those 'kept' animals.

 

Good to see Scorpion is still popular! Do they ever run 2 trains on it? Last summer, a ride op told us that the 2nd train was off in some maintenance shop. Best ride pretty much!

 

Now when will Gwazi get proper trains! That already brilliant ride deserves to be headache free!

[sam06pr]

Great pictures! I love that park.

 

I'm not exactly a PETA member, yet, but I can't help but thinking about the welfare of those 'kept' animals.

 

Good to see Scorpion is still popular! Do they ever run 2 trains on it? Last summer, a ride op told us that the 2nd train was off in some maintenance shop. Best ride pretty much!

 

Now when will Gwazi get proper trains! That already brilliant ride deserves to be headache free!

 

Scorpion is still very Popular. When the park is very busy the whole queue line and house gets full completely. And no, they do not run 2 train due to some maintenance issues. The second train is always off in the shop (which is right next to the queue line, if you look to your left) They switch them out I think every six months.

 

Jungala looks freaking awesome and fun. Can't wait to play in there.