Walt Disney Imagineering has filed a strange permit for demolition and construction at the Tree of Life in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. However, we don’t believe it will be demolished.

Tree of Life Construction Permit

The Notice of Commencement calls upon Whiting-Turner to complete “Facility Demo, General Construction, Electrical, and Area Development” at 745 W Savannah Cir, the official address of the Tree of Life.

Though that much work is already a bit odd for a structure that recently opened a brand-new attraction, what makes the permit stranger is its expiration date: December 30, 2025. Permits usually expire one year after filing, not 8 days. It’s possible the date is a typo and should say 2026, but that still doesn’t explain the construction, and multiple other Whiting-Turner permits filed on December 22 also expire on December 30.

The permit is nearly identical to one filed this past February for the Tree of Life, before It’s Tough to be a Bug closed to make way for Zootopia: Better Zoogether. It’s possible this “new” permit is actually an extension of the old — except that the previous permit was set to expire on December 31, 2025. So the new permit would only be required if something went wrong with the last one, forcing it to expire early.

Either way, we expect this permit is just for some last minute construction work related to Zootopia: Better Zoogether or possibly a refurbishment of the Tree of Life. The Zootopia: Better Zoogether queue is covered by safety netting, which could be related to work on the park icon.

Watch our video of Zootopia: Better Zoogether below.

What do you think Disney is doing with this permit? Let us know in the comments and on social media.

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