Starbucks Animal Kingdom mug: Discovery Series

By The Starbucks Cups team · Last checked 2026-11-14 · How we make these pages

Starbucks Discovery Series Animal Kingdom mug with clownfish, a giraffe, a zebra and a safari truck around the words ANIMAL KINGDOM — Front view · numbered markers match the list below Show markers

The Animal Kingdom Discovery Series mug sets Disney's ANIMAL KINGDOM over a yellow-orange sun, with Nemo, Marlin and Dory from Finding Nemo, the Tree of Life with animals in its trunk, a Kilimanjaro Safaris truck, a giraffe, a zebra and a line of ants.

Series: Discovery Series
Place: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Florida, USA
Type: Mug
Released: Not confirmed
Capacity: 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
SKU: Not confirmed

Shop on Amazon See eBay listings

Sponsored links: we earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Browse all Discovery Series mugs on eBay →

The real jungle animals Walt Disney could not schedule

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney wanted the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland to have real animals ^[1]. His Imagineers warned that they would be unpredictable and could not be guaranteed to be visible on cue, so Audio-Animatronic ones went in instead ^[1]. Decades later, the Animal Kingdom team had a fix, according to the Chicago Tribune: hide water and food sources, such as salt licks and feeders, inside tree stumps, rocks and reed beds, so the animals show up where the open-air vehicles pass ^[1]. The road got the same care. Imagineers matched the concrete's color to the surrounding soil ^[1]. While it was wet, they rolled tires through it and tossed stones, dirt and twigs on top, to copy the bumpiness of a remote African road ^[1]. All of it covers 110 acres, the largest attraction at any Disney theme park ^[1]. The open truck on the Animal Kingdom mug (7) is the kind that drives it.

The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.

What's on the mug

1
Disney's ANIMAL KINGDOM lettering
Disney's in small script-style capitals above ANIMAL KINGDOM in dark green capitals with a white outline, set over a large yellow-orange sun. This is the park's name, the only printed text in the photo.
2
Nemo and Marlin (Finding Nemo)
Two orange-and-white striped clownfish with big cartoon eyes swim at the upper centre, one smaller than the other. Drawn next to Dory, they are Nemo and his father Marlin from Disney and Pixar's Finding Nemo, whose characters appear in the park's stage show Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!. The mug doesn't name them.^[6]^[7]
3
Dory (Finding Nemo)
A blue-green fish with a yellow tail, a large eye and a wide smile swims above the two clownfish. It is Dory, the regal blue tang from Finding Nemo, who appears with Marlin and Nemo in the park's Finding Nemo stage show. The mug doesn't name her.^[6]^[7]
4
Tree of Life
A large tree with a dark green canopy, pale blue leaf clusters and a broad green trunk rises right of the lettering. Grey-green animal shapes are set into the trunk, including an elephant's head with its trunk hanging down. Animals carved into the trunk are the mark of the Tree of Life, the park's central landmark, which carries over 300 animal carvings. The mug doesn't name it.^[2]^[3]
5
Giraffe
An orange giraffe with lighter patches stands at the right edge beside the handle, its head raised into the tree's leaves. The drawing does not show a particular animal.
6
Zebra
A zebra striped in green and white stands below the lettering, facing right towards the tree. The stripes are drawn green, not black.
7
Kilimanjaro Safaris truck
An open-sided truck with a pale blue canopy roof, green-and-orange uprights, a dark green cab and yellow wheels runs along the bottom left. An open safari truck at this park is the vehicle of Kilimanjaro Safaris, the open-air ride through the park's African savanna. The mug doesn't name the ride.^[4]^[5]
8
Line of ants
A row of four small orange ants walks across the lower centre, between the zebra and the giraffe.
9
Orange peak, possibly Expedition Everest's mountain
At the far left an orange peak with white patches, like snow, rises above pale blue slopes, with dark spiky leaves at its upper left and a ladder-like dark strip at the bottom edge. It may be the snowy Forbidden Mountain of Expedition Everest, the park's roller coaster, and the strip could be its track, but the drawing is too stylised to be sure. The rest of this area runs into the side of the mug that is in no photo.^[8]
10
Orange and green flowering plant
Above the lettering on the left, a plant with long green leaves has fronds in green, yellow and orange and thin orange stalks with dark tips.
11
Green S-shaped curve
A thick green S-shaped curve hangs below the flowering plant, just left of Disney's.

The photo shows one side of the mug, taken inside its box. The back and the area behind the handle are out of view.

Collector notes

The yellow-orange sun behind the lettering is the same device other Disney Discovery mugs use, so check the park name in the lettering before buying a look-alike.
The safari truck, the zebra and the ants run along the bottom, while the fish and the giraffe are higher up, so a seller photo that cuts off the base misses the truck and the ants.

Before you buy

This Discovery Series mug photo shows one side only, taken inside its box, so the back and the area behind the handle are not visible. The same yellow-orange sun appears behind the lettering on other Disney Discovery mugs, so check the park name before buying a look-alike. Animal Kingdom also appears in the Been There and You Are Here series.