Discovery Island Trails
BEAUTIFULLY VEGETATED PATHS AND TRAILS AROUND THE BASE OF THE TREE OF LIFE THAT CONTAIN SMALL ANIMAL VIEWING AREAS
Take the time to wander these paths and discover some animals amongst the vegetated oasis
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Discovery Island Trails
This is a series of walkways that surround and wind themselves among the Tree of Life. Permanent guests of these trails include a wide display of birds, including beautiful flamingos and colorful toucans. A wide array of other wildlife also make their home here. So keep your cameras handy while on this scenic trail.
 
Overview
As you emerge from the heavily vegetated Oasis, you will see the Tree of Life in front of you.
Discovery Island is the central hub of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Think of it as you would the Magic Kingdom's Main Street. From the Discovery Island hub, the spokes of the wheel branch out into the other lands in the park. From left to right: Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki's Planet Watch, Asia, and Dinoland USA.
Discovery Island Trails
Animal Kingdom
The Discovery Island Trails are the best kept secret that you'll find on the Animal Kingdom Guide map. These are beautifully vegetated paths and trails around the base of the Tree of Life that contain small animal viewing areas.
The Discovery Island Trails are the paths that surround the Tree of Life. Here you will find small animal viewing areas for lemurs, kangaroos, capybaras and other wildlife.
When the park opens in the morning, take time to explore the area and watch the animals. While everyone else is rushing off to get FastPasses or heading towards the Safari....you'll have a wonderful quiet time all to yourself!
Deb's Notes:
"We decided to explore the Tree of Life Gardens, oh wait, they are now called the Discovery Island Gardens (this change occurred in the last few months). What an incredible time we had. Staying at DAKL gave us a better appreciation of just sitting and watching the animals and so we did that on this particular morning.
The Giant Galapagos Tortoise gave us an incredible show for about 20 minutes. It was his feeding time and we watched as he slowly (and I mean slowly) climbed out of the small pond and lumbered over to a bed of fresh lettuce greens, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples (we are guessing what the food was).
We took over 100 photos of him with the digital camera. The more I use and learn about my Cannon G-1, the happier I am with the purchase. We tried different shots, using both regular zoom and the digital 2x and 4x Zoom.
I actually had tears in my eyes at one point, I can't explain why...except that we felt so fortunate to have this long audience with the Tortoise all to ourselves. This is one of the big reasons why Animal Kingdom is so special to me!
Next we found 2 Capybara - the largest living rodent in existence. One was laying out in the sun, sleeping. The other was enjoying the shade back in a sheltered area. The digital camera really showed its stuff here and you can see the regular, 2x and 4x zoom of the same photo.
Capybara are semi-aquatic and native to South America. They are most active in the early morning and evening; although some can be quite nocturnal. They live 8 - 10 years in the wild and are herbivores. The capybara will dive into the water to escape the Jaguar, it's predator!
These are just 2 of the animals you'll find along the Discovery Island Trails. There are others just waiting for you........