The creation of Disney's Animal Kingdom was a hugely ambitious venture. Nature and conservation were two of the many things that Walt Disney was passionate about, so it was not a stretch for the Eisner administration to add a fourth gate to Walt Disney World that centered around animals. One of the greatest hurdles to the creation of Animal Kingdom was convincing critics that the concept was viable as a theme park and that it would be substantially different from a zoo. In a tongue-in-cheek way, the park was affectionately known as "Nahtazu".
