White Rhinos at Disney's Animal Kingdom get fitted with fitness trackers

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White Rhino Fitted With Fitness Tracker

Posted: Wednesday May 18, 2022 9:54am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

White Rhinos at Disney's Animal Kingdom are getting in on high-tech fitness with new GPS enabled activity trackers.

On a slightly larger scale than an Apple Watch, the rhinos are sporting an activity tracker very similar to the popular fitness trackers many of us have worn to track our daily steps and activity.

The activity trackers help Disney's animal care teams better understand the activity levels of the rhinos throughout the day and when they settle in for the evening.The built-in accelerometer gives the ability to track the distance they cover running and walking around the savanna and their sleeping and napping schedules.

White Rhino Fitted With Fitness Tracker

The built-in GPS unit allows the team to see where on the savanna the rhinos like to spend their time, revealing which features in the habitat are most popular to them, and how factors, like wallows, sun and shade, impact the areas they use.

With the video below to see the animal care team fit one of the trackers to a white rhino backstage at Kilimanjaro Safaris.

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Chip ChippersonMay 23, 2022

This plan will fail when the rhinos learn to put the fitness trackers on their Roombas while they sit around binge watching "The Mandalorian."

JoeCamelMay 23, 2022

Zumba class at 9 AM sharp! Just $129.99 to see a rhino in Spandex, reserve your place now! note: once rhinos reach hippo weight the dancing will begin

floydbeatleMay 22, 2022

I just finished watching this show on Disney+ called Secrets of the Zoo (Tampa). I really enjoyed the show. One thing they mention is that any animal on the Species Survival Plan cannot be forced to do anything. Everything they do i.e. adding fitness trackers, moving inside their buildings, must be voluntary on the animals part. I think the Southern White Rhino has an SSP but maybe not the Northern White Rhino? Not sure, but maybe that is what happened with the wayward Rhino.

Gabe1May 19, 2022

No. The free area. Maybe he did refuse to leave but he was problematic.

disneygeek90May 18, 2022

Interesting. When I did Savor the Savannah, they made it a point to tell us that animals are never forced to go inside. They are made the offer at certain times of the day with their special species "whistle," but are never pushed to do so. Perhaps they were in an area they shouldn't have been?

Gabe1May 18, 2022

Fitness or tracking. A few years ago we were on the Safari at dusk. Good to see and hear lions but much of the wildlife is often moved to their night time habitats already. Our Safari was stopped by a Rhino that wasn’t supposed to be out there at that hour and he wouldn’t move. Tour Guide radioed in to advise one had been left behind and also our truck needed assistance. Fitness Tracker could have easily found the wayward fella.