Busch Gardens is often a little light on ride theming (excluding the amazing work they did with Cobra’s Curse), but I do appreciate how they often tie the ride motion to animal motion. An excellent example of this is Cheetah Hunt which mimics the acceleration and ground movement of a cheetah. However, many people probably miss the animal connection with SheiKra, the awesome B&M dive coaster, and its movements matching the “shikra” bird of Africa and southern Asia.

The shikra is a bird of prey found in Africa and parts of Asia. It has some similarities to hawks, but is its own species and is considered a raptor. Raptor is used describe birds that swoop down on their prey (So I guess SheiKra was Florida’s first “raptor” themed coaster?). The shikra is known for loitering and gliding high in the sky before diving almost vertically to surprise and attack its prey. If you’re familiar with the ride at all you’ll instantly see the connection. The park actually constructed a statue of the bird at the base of the iconic drop that is does a pretty good job of resembling the real thing.

It’s unfortunate that the official website doesn’t allude to this theming and description just has the info below which is more technical and less story:

“Climb 200 feet to the edge of a 90-degree drop that inches you mercilessly over the edge—and stops. Then surrender to speed as you dive straight down into a 70 mph roller coaster whirlwind with an Immelmann loop, a second dive into an underground tunnel and a splashdown finale that drenches SheiKra^® fans waiting to catch their own piece of the fun.”

https://buschgardens.com/tampa/roller-coasters/sheikra/

If you ride the park’s train you’ll hear a couple of sentences about the ride’s bird theme and if you poke around online blogs and YouTube channels you’ll see a mention, but honestly it’s pretty rare. I’ve been going to Busch Gardens for years and have been aware of the bird connection for years as well (courtesy of the info given by the conductor on the train). However, I totally missed the bird statue at the base of the drop until last month. The next time you’re at the park glance down at the base of the drop rather than the car hanging from the top to catch a glimpse of this cool theming.