Animals in the park

[Purplehaze]

I hate snakes I would have screamed like a little girl! ha!

[Colonel_SoB_fan]

Yeah, it did. Of course when I went down that path later I saw 0. I'm the one that loves non lethal snake

[windshawne]

Saw a skunk year before last under the tower, last year I saw a deer standing by the path before the second lift on beast, cats, and I even took a nap at the theatre during haunt two years ago-I woke up to a girl stating there was a possum-I sat up and there it was beside me...yuk!!! Oh, and I saw a hawk in the parking lot. There are chipmunks who regularly hang out at the front gate and are bold enough to run over your feet-but they're cute.

[SOB_TOM]

Here's a good story about the animal population at KI...

During the construction of Drop Tower, one of the concerns was having deer step into the concrete footer for the ride. Since the concrete was extremely thick, it would have meant the end of the deer's life, as well as having to rip up all the concrete and start from scratch. Since deer are cautious around the park (won't come into the park when the regular guests are there because of the noise,) maintenance set up speakers around the work site, and started playing music through them to keep the animals away. Unfortunately for those working the area, the cd only had one song on it.....

Oh and there's a great story about "Deer Repellant Tape," but that's for another time.

[coaster_junky]

^wow, those poor workers, would it have been that hard to hook the speakers up to a stereo?

[Purplehaze]

Tom, well what was the song? lol

[diamondback1]

there are a lot of deer by The Beast

[IndyGuy4KI]

^wow, those poor workers, would it have been that hard to hook the speakers up to a stereo?

Kinda what I was thinking. Reminds me of Sam in Transformers 2, "Repeats itself, Repeats itself, Repeats itself." HA!

[BavarianBeatle]

I have seen possums, skunks, Great Blue Herons, chipmunks, cicadas, rat snakes, and bluebirds...

[Creed Bratton]

I have seen a turtle in the Flight Deck Que. I have also seen a cat under the Diamondback final Break run.

I too have seen a cat curled up and sleeping under the DB final breakrun.

I named the cat Chester!!

[TopThrill]

I've seen skunk's, and deer.

[XGatorHead 8904]

There was a topic like this a few years ago: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12823&st=0

Here's my experiences with animals in the park, from that topic:

I don't know about any of you, but I've seen a lot of snakes in one of the AE tunnels. You really think KI would do something about that. They've been living there since 1991!

Seriously though, I've had plenty of encounters with animals there. My first (and scariest) was in what used to be a storage room for The Beast merch cart. The storage room was located in the line for Beast, across from the height check station. There was an animal that used to get in there and eat the candy that we stored in there. It was pretty disgusting throwing out the long licorice ropes that had been gnawed on. Well, one day I stuck the key in the door, opened the door, and I saw this fat, brown furry thing run towards me. I jumped and shut that door real quick. And of course I was not alone at the time, so the co-worker that was with me just had to tell everyone, and the jokes would not die the rest of the season. "Hey, seen any woodchucks lately?"

I have hit trashcans with broomsticks early in the morning to make sure no animals were in them, I had an encounter with an opossum that snarled at me in one of the employee areas, and have seen many cats in the park.

One of my associates found a young kitten one morning. We housed it in the kennel for the day, and the associate that found it wanted to take it home with her. But we all decided that the best thing to do was to turn it over to the Warren County Animal Shelter, so we did.

One morning one of my associates found a baby bird that had fallen out of it's nest. They scooped it up into a cardboard box and made a little nest for it in the box while we decided what to do. We ended up placing it back in the nest. Whether the mother bird accepted it back I don't know, but we made very sure not to touch it at all.

But the story that sticks out most for me, besides The Beast incident, is this one. One night, since we were having a relatively slow night, my manager and I decided to take a walk around the park. We were in Coney and we saw a group of guests staring into one of the islands in the middle of the midway. We approached them and they said that there was a raccoon in there. I got on the radio and paged Landscaping to come for the animal (they are, or were at the time, the department that reponds to animal calls). My manager and I stayed there to insure no guests tried to approach it. Landscaping got there in a few minutes with their animal catching equipment. About that time, a woman comes up and starts screaming at us, "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT DEFENSELESS ANIMAL? YOU'RE GOING TO KILL IT AREN'T YOU? I'M CALLING THE HUMANE SOCIETY, THE SPCA AND EVERYONE ELSE I CAN THINK OF! THIS IS NOT RIGHT! YOU NEED TO LET IT GO! IT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! JUST GUIDE IT OVER TO THAT GATE OVER THERE! YOU CAN'T KILL IT!" The woman's husband and daughter just stood at a distance behind her, looking embarassed the whole time. Once, the husband tried to intervene, but the woman yelled at him for trying to pull her away. My manager and I tried to call the woman down (and keep her distracted) while the grounds crew did their thing. They trapped the animal and carried it off. The woman then screams "THAT'S IT! WE'RE LEAVING AND NEVER COMING BACK! Kings Island IS NOTHING BUT A BUNCH OF ANIMAL MURDERERS!" I have no idea what Landscaping does with the animals it catches, but this woman just went ballistic on us. A ton of guests stopped and watched the whole thing, and we had numerous people come up to us afterwards, symapthizing with my manager and me. These guests told us that we handled the situation well and couldn't believe how we stayed so calm the whole time. It always feels good when people come up and say that you did something well, especially when people only tend to tell you about the negatives.

[rivertowngirl]

LOL! When I worked in rivertown I also had to go into that Beast storage area and inventory that stuff and pitch the sweatshirts that had giant raccoon prints (and pee stains) on them. Apparently raccoons really like Chic-o-stiks too. I saw skunks pretty often at night after closing, back in the rivertown area.

[selective]

I filmed this in May of 2010

Squirrel at Kings Island

Friday, May 21st, 2010

A Squirrel runs through crowd and after pausing a few times to look around, seeks shelter under a table out side the Ice Cream Shop in Planet Snoopy where a guest feeds it a pretzel while it drys off and waits for the rain to stop.

It was a very cold day and I was soaked so I tried my best to hold the camera still.

[IndyGuy4KI]

Thanks for the post selective!

[technicolorgirl]

There was a skunk "in" the line for The Beast last night...one of the ride attendants had to go tell people to leave it alone.....They were asking her if they could take pictures......

[The Interpreter]

Given there was a rabid fox at Six Flags America recently, AND it bit a visitor, those were not the brightest of people in that line! An odor is bad enough, but rabies is no laughing matter.

http://www.KICentral...showtopic=22020

[Purplehaze]

No it is not a laughing matter, Terpy thought you got shots for that? hahaha, just had to don"t crucify me...lol

[The Interpreter]

My dad used to tease me asking if I had had my rabies shots yet!

Thanks for the memories:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6oHxq77_MI

[technicolorgirl]

We were talking to "Kit" (he works on The Beast) and he said that there were 2 groundhogs that they see quite often, and that they had names for them......although I can't remember them now......."Fred" and ?????....

[The Interpreter]

Wilma?

Terp, ever hopeful

[technicolorgirl]

HAHA.....I would have remembered something like that .....it was something uncommon......it really bothers me that I cant remember.

[Purplehaze]

Was it Wilma from the Flintstones? You have peaked my curiosity.

[technicolorgirl]

no... I think it was Mercury or Mars.....but I'm not positive....the only reason I remember ones name was "Fred" is because he said, "the old Fred died, but a new Fred came along to take his place".... ....lol.

[Purplehaze]

Wasn't Pluto was it?

[Diamondback96]

If it was Pluto, then where's Mickey?

[technicolorgirl]

Honestly I don't know.....somebody should go ask Kit though....he knows...lol.

[The Interpreter]

The two large tortoises at Great Adventure are named Fred and Wilma...

And yes, it is an homage to Kings Island, as is Dream Street there...and the island in the middle of the lake...Kings Island...and the statute on the right side of the park entry street (see also...yep, Kings Island). And the long time once PR director there (now in charge of entertainment) has long said her favorite coaster is The Beast!

[Adventure Express]

On July third I saw a Two Groundhogs while waiting in line for Vortex! Could these be the ones you were talking about? The little one walked right up next to the line leading into the Station and put it's hand on some chapstick. It was pretty cute and funny!

I've also seen a ton of little kids around... does that count?

[XGatorHead 8904]

no... I think it was Mercury or Mars.....but I'm not positive....the only reason I remember ones name was "Fred" is because he said, "the old Fred died, but a new Fred came along to take his place".... ....lol.

One's named Fred... Mercury would make sense for the other one if they want a little Queen at Kings Island.