The Wilderness Explorer's Handbook | Animal Kingdom

If you read my previous blog post, you will know that I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and took part in the Wilderness Explorers sticker challenge. If not, you'll probably want to check out that blog post before reading this one.

I promised in that post that I would do a whole extra post explaining the Wilderness Explorers handbook sticker challenge. And, well, this is that post.

The Wilderness Explorers main post is very close to the entrance of Animal Kingdom. You will struggle to miss it with everyone in their bright uniforms shouting the Wilderness Explorer Call. When you go to that post, they will give you a handbook and a set of basic instructions. Don't worry if you don't catch all the instructions; there is a copy in the front of the book which I will show you through now.

The front cover is pretty simple. It shows the Wilderness Explorers logo.

The first inside page is the first of many pledges that you will sign throughout this book. So, you had better get used to writing your name over and over again.

Page 3 is where the handbook retells you the instructions that should have been told to you by the Senior Wilderness Explorer who gave you your book. One thing that I think should have been made clear on this page is that it is the Troop Leaders who guide tasks. However, on tasks where you don't need assistance and is a task you can do on your own, a badge guide will be in the area simply to hand you a sticker.

The next page is the map. As you can see, on mine there are a lot of scribbles as I was keeping check of which badges I had completed already and which I needed to go back to. I actually used this map of the park a lot more to navigate the park than I did with the detailed paper map that is handed out. I found this super useful as it meant I didn't need a leaflet map to carry around as well as carrying around this handbook.

The first badge you will get (along with a Wilderness Explorers sticker to wear on your clothing) is the Wilderness Explorers Call Badge. This badge is where you are taught the speech and hand actions for the Wilderness Explorers Call.

The flamingo badge is probably the least structured badge that I took part in. The troop leader told me a lot about flamingos including that they are actually born grey! They turn pink due to the amount of shrimp they eat. I received my badge but only realised later in the day that I hadn't filled out the page in my book.

Please don't point out to me the fact that this sticker is upside down. I know. It is heartbreaking. You receive this badge at the front of the park but not until much later in the day than you receive your book. This is because you need to go around the park and spot some of these animals in order to receive the badge. I ticked off everything I saw (Pumba is a warthog).

The insect badge was one of the last badges I got because it was so hard to find the post! You will need to ask somebody to point it out to you as if not I don't think Axel and I would have ever found it. You fill out the question on the page (I ticked that I like to chew on others) and each answer corresponds with an insect and they will show you that insect. Ours was a spider!

Axel and I had avoided the music badge for a while because we thought that you actually had to sit down and play the music in order to get the badge when really all you have to do is answer one question.

My favourite badge! This is the safari badge which you get when you complete the Kilimanjaro safari. If you want to know more about the safari then read my previous blog post! I drew an elephant because I thought it would be amazing to see an elephant on a safari! And then I filled out the travel card on the next page to receive my badge.

At the same post, I received the African culture badge. All I had to do was find out where the troop leader was from in Africa.

Personally, I think this was the most boring badge of all. I had to listen to a long radio message which was very hard to hear to get two answers. But, I got the badge and was one step closer to becoming a senior Wilderness Explorer.

This badge was probably the most exciting badge as it required quite a few things to achieve it. There was a long trail to walk along and you had to answer different questions at different trail markers. Note my amazing drawing of a tiger? The badge guide said it was the best field sketch he had ever seen. #winning. Also, along the way to getting this hiking badge, there were other badges to collect along the trail.

Personally, I think the birding badge was a very good idea! We were given a laminated sheet and had to spot birds. When we spotted a bird, we had to identify it on the laminated sheet and count how many we saw.

The tracking badge is one of the badges that was the funniest to get. Not because of the badge itself but because of a girl who was also getting the badge at the same time as us. To get the badge you had to look into an empty enclosure and spot the tracking signs. On the other side of the enclosure in a different enclosure were a lot of zebras. A little girl who was doing this badge with us decided to tell the troop leader it was impossible for a lion to have gone through here without killing all the zebra, so the markings were clearly fake. Kudos to the girl for knowing that but I do think that she ruined the experience for the youngest children trying to get the badge.

I wasn't expecting there to be as many gorillas here as there were! They had a lot. I also learned that gorillas are herbivores. (RIP Harambe)

This badge including the following five badges were all located on Rafiki's Planet Watch. This was the first badge you come across on the planet watch and it is in a garden area. There is a fake garden set up with fake creatures in it and you need to spot as many of the creatures as you can. I couldn't spot most of them and copied a few from Axel's book. I'm not sure if all of the creatures are there or if only a few are. But, we got the badge anyway.

For this badge all you had to do was sign a pledge and get the following three badges. All of these badges were located in one building. When collecting the stickers for these badges, we had a great conversation with the troop leader. Obviously most people who visited her to discuss conservation were from America. And, if you don't know, America and the UK are quite different in their conservation systems. For example, in England you can switch a plug socket off. In America you cannot so if you want to conserve energy and save money, you have to unplug whatever you have plugged in. Also in England we now have the carrier bag charge where you have to pay 5p for every carrier bag you used. This has decreased carrier bag usage significantly. America does not have this charge but hopefully one day it will! I did see a lot of people in America using reusable bags instead of getting a free plastic carrier bag which is so good. Especially as there is no charge there.

For this badge we had to copy a chart that was in a room with a big glass window for you to look into it. And, we had to sign another pledge.

For this badge we needed to look at an X-ray and fill in the A.I.D. card based on the information provided with the X-ray. And, we had to sign a pledge.

This was a tricky one to find as the information for it was located on the side of a waste/recycling bin. And, Axel managed to guess the word without even looking at the code! Oh, and look at that! Another pledge!

To earn this badge all you had to do was wash your hands. However, to get in to be able to wash your hands, you had to go through a little petting zoo! I was in heaven. They had goats and alpacas! I brushed lots of goats and admired multiple alpaca. And then of course I washed my hands. The badge guide wasn't located at the hand washing station but instead at the gift shop across the path.

This badge was similar to the African culture badge. All we had to do was find out where the guy was from.

The forestry badge was also located in Asia. I don't have much memory of this badge at all to be honest.

For this badge we had to listen to different animal calls and identify which animal they belonged to. I see I made a note of Follow The Frog on this page. I believe Follow The Frog is similar to FairTrade in the UK.

Oh, for this badge we had to do a scratching! I used to do these when I was really little with crayons and they were animal shapes! This one I managed to do upside down and very terribly. Four year old me would be so disappointed.

The bat badge was located at the entrance to an area where usually you are able to view bats. I think because it was summer, this part was closed. But, I did draw an amazing bat box just like the one I made a few years ago!

Tigers are my favourite animal ever so I was determined to get this badge! I didn't draw many stripes on my tiger because he wanted to be hipster and have only a few. Again, Axel guessed the word below without even needing to look at the board for clues! I was super disappointed because we couldn't find the badge guide anywhere. However, we spotted her just as we were leaving the tiger area. So, be sure to look around a lot for your badge guides as they will be there somewhere!

For some reason I found this badge hard to find even though it was in a pretty obvious place in Asia near the shops and market posts. It was a boring badge to get as all I had to do was copy from a table.

Is the Forbidden Peak a real thing or just a Disney thing? Anyway, I know how tall it is.

Axel completed this badge whilst I was consuming a delicious ice cream. So he explained to me what I had to do and helped me find everything. The badge guide was impressed I managed to do it all without her explaining it all to me haha.

I'm so happy I got this badge because it will forever be a reminder of Expedition Everest and the time I nearly threw up. (Again, if you want to hear that story you'll need to check out my previous post). The yeti foot was very hard to find for some reason even though for most people it would probably be easy. It was smaller than I expected so I was a lot taller than it.

This badge and the following badges were all dinosaur related so I let Axel take the lead. He knows a lot about dinosaurs and I know next to nothing. For this badge we had to identify types of dinosaur from their fossils. Axel got all of them right apart from the pronunciation of one of them.

In a sand pit where children were playing, there were giant plastic bones of a prehistoric animal. We were looking at it upside down so I wasn't sure but Axel got it straight away.

I loved this badge. Probably because the flags are so aesthetically pleasing! We had to identify three flags. This badge made me realise I need new glasses as I couldn't see the flags that well haha. Also, I thought 'Smores tonight' said 'Smokes tonight' which I don't think is appropriate for a Wilderness Explorer.

When we were given our Wilderness Explorer handbooks, we were told to note down three facts that we learned throughout the day. As you can see, I only remembered to write down one as I was too busy collecting badges to remember to write down the facts.

As you could probably already tell, Axel and I collected every single one of the badges. This meant that we were now official Senior Wilderness Explorers! We got our stickers to add to this page and got to sign our autograph in a book to prove we are now legit!

Axel made his autograph super cute !

And finally, the end page sports the Wilderness Explorers motto and logo!

I think that this activity was an absolutely amazing idea to add the the Animal Kingdom Park. I think it adds a lot to the experience for visitors my age as it makes you look and notice a lot more of the park than you usually would. It is also obviously a great addition for children. It is also a really cute souvenir to take home with you.