A Place to Eat (and be eaten)

Flame Tree Barbecue on Discovery Island at Disney's Animal Kingdom not only offers some of the best smoked barbecue ribs at Walt Disney World, but also provides one of the nicest dining environments in the park. The seating area of this restaurant is spread out among several pavilions dotting a terraced hillside on the shores of Lake Discovery.

The views of the lake and Expedition Everest are beautiful, but take a closer look. You might find that things around you aren't quite as placid as they first appear.

Just as they are throughout Discovery Island, fanciful animal forms are woven into the design of the pavilions, lampposts, windsocks and more. Since this is an eating establishment, though, the theme is that of the relationship between predators and prey.

In the photo above, shift your focus away from Everest for a moment, and you'll see that the crocodiles are chasing after and eating the fish. Elsewhere, owls hunt rabbits, snakes hide from hawks, anteaters eat ants, snakes snatch mice and spiders catch butterflies in their webs.

It may seem gruesome, but it's all part of the natural order of things, in which even we play a part. Bring over your tray of food, but before you sit down, take note of a couple of things. The back of all the chairs features predators, while the design on the tabletop depicts their prey. By taking a seat and setting our lunch down before us, we take our own place in the circle of life.