How Unclaimed Lost & Found Items Are Helping the Tigers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

The recycling game is strong all over the Walt Disney World Resort, but no place displays the importance of these actions as well as Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This theme park devoted to animals and the natural world runs on a conservation-based mission, that includes recycling efforts to help save the environment for both humans and wildlife. Disney just shared a look at one way Walt Disney World reuses a certain type of item to create new enrichment opportunities for tigers living in Animal Kingdom, and it might surprise you!

Dr. Mark Penning, Vice President of Disney’s Animals, Science & Environment, recently took to Instagram to share how tigers in the theme park are taking advantage of enrichment programs based on their habit of investigating new scents. Cast Members in the park learned that tigers love seeking out the various scents of perfumes and colognes, and this discovery led to one of the coolest recycling programs at Walt Disney World. Take a look below:

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A post shared by Dr. Mark Penning (@drmarkatdisney)

Initially unused bottles of perfume and cologne were donated by Disney Cast Members for tigers to sniff out in their habitats, but the program later expanded to include the Theme Park Lost & Found team. These Cast Members manage lost items from all around the Walt Disney World Resort, including all four theme parks, the two water parks, Disney Springs, and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, but what happens when these items go unclaimed?

In the cast of perfumes and colognes, these items are repurposed to be used in enrichment activities for some of Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s resident big cats! If you have ever lost a bottle of perfume or body spray at Walt Disney World, and it did not seem worthwhile enough to go through the Lost & Found process, you can now rest assured knowing it was reused in a meaningful way!

You can see a Sumatran tiger for yourself while walking the Maharajah Jungle Trek in the Asia section of this Disney park. The tigers ar Disneys Animal Kingdom park are part of the Species Survival Plan managed by the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) that works toward conservation efforts for endangered species like the tiger both in the Disney park and at accredited institutions around the world.