A child visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge went over a rock wall and dropped into the Sunset Savanna animal enclosure near Kidani Village’s Sanaa restaurant on Thursday, June 25, setting off several tense minutes before a group of bystanders pulled her back to safety.
The moment was captured on video and shared to Reddit’s r/WaltDisneyWorld by user u/MetaKate334, who said her family was waiting on a dining reservation at Sanaa at the time. According to her account, the girl had been sitting on top of the rock wall that borders the savanna before climbing down into the enclosure. Any injury appeared to be minor, though the situation looked dramatic in the moment.
In the video, a bystander can be seen leaning over the wall trying to reach the child, who is attempting to climb back up on her own. When that rescue attempt comes up short, a second bystander climbs over the wall and drops down into the enclosure to reach her directly. The clip then cuts to a group of guests working together to lift both the child and the woman who went in after her back over the wall to safety.
It’s worth noting that Disney typically sets its actual perimeter fencing for these savanna habitats well back from the rock walls and overlooks where guests gather, often far enough that visitors don’t register it as a barrier at all. That doesn’t make going into the enclosure a good idea, but it does mean the area the child entered was likely a buffer zone rather than open range, putting her in less immediate danger than the footage alone suggests.
A separate commenter on the Reddit thread said her own daughter was at Sanaa for the same reason and gave a statement to resort security afterward. That commenter claimed the child’s parents were dining inside the restaurant without her at the time, and that the parents directed blame at the resort once the situation was resolved. Fantasy Land News has not been able to independently verify this secondhand account, and we’re treating it as unconfirmed.
As of publication, Disney has not issued a public statement on the incident.
For more on Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge and the savannas surrounding it, check out our full coverage at Fantasy Land News.
