PRESS ROOM

Archive: Smashing Pumpkins at the Detroit Zoo

Animals to receive Halloween-themed treats October 10 and 20

October 5, 2018

ROYAL OAK, Mich., 

Detroit Zoo animals will have a smashing good time on Wednesday, October 10, and Saturday, October 20, 2018, when they receive pumpkins filled with tasty treats to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and smash.

Each year around Halloween, Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) staff provide the animals with seasonal munchies – including pumpkins, gourds, cornstalks and other fall harvest goodies – as part of its comprehensive program of ensuring environments for animals that are ever changing and appropriately complex.

All year round, food items are hidden throughout the animals’ habitats or prepared and placed in order to stimulate natural behaviors such as foraging or stalking.

“Around Halloween, seasonal fare from local Michigan producers gives this activity a special appeal for both Zoo visitors and the animals,” said Scott Carter, DZS chief life sciences officer.

Schedule:

  • 10:30 a.m. – bush dogs
  • 11 a.m. – vultures (across from tree kangaroos)
  • 11:30 a.m. – great apes
  • Noon – polar bears
  • 12:30 p.m. – grizzly bears
  • 1 p.m. – kangaroos
  • 1:30 p.m. – snow monkeys
  • 2 p.m. – penguins

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