Disney’s Animal Kingdom through the years

Elephants are some of the roughly 2,000 animals that call Animal Kingdom home.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune )

Animal Kingdom’s 145-foot-tall Tree of Life was built over a retrofitted 14-story oil rig. It’s covered with more than 100,000 five-shades-of-green leaves — each over a foot long.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

The snow-capped peaks of Expedition Everest loom in the distance at Animal Kingdom, the largest Disney theme park in the world.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

The so-called Forbidden Mountain that houses the Expedition Everest attraction is the tallest mountain at any Disney park. The peak meant to represent the real Mount Everest can be seen in the distance on the right.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

Dangling vines hide the supports for seemingly floating mountains in Pandora — The World of Avatar.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

At night, the walkways dazzle with an otherworldly glow in Pandora — The World of Avatar, an area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

Concealed feeding stations help position the animals so that they’re visible from Kilimanjaro Safaris’ open-air vehicles at the Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

The largest Hidden Mickey in Animal Kingdom can be found on the flamingo island.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

Lucky the Dinosaur, Disney’s first free-roaming Audio-Animatronic figure, visits Dinoland in May 2005.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

That’s not a real dirt road underneath you in the Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but it sure feels like one — bumps and all.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

Inspired by James Cameron’s 2009 movie “Avatar,” the surreal world of Pandora — The World of Avatar inhabits the Animal Kingdom space originally earmarked for an area of the park devoted to imaginary creatures.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

The steel roller coaster Expedition Everest is themed around the Yeti guarding the Forbidden Mountain next to the Animal Kingdom’s version of Mount Everest.   (Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune)

One of the animal characters from the March of the ARTimals parade entertains guests at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 1999.   ( Bruce Pecho/for the Chicago Tribune )