Cameras placed in the meerkat enclosure at Indianapolis Zoo capture resident meerkats playing with and eating a pumpkin ahead of Halloween.
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From monkeys to polar bears, animals are enjoying pumpkins this fall. It’s a bit of a tradition. Each autumn, many zoos across the nation treat their zoo residents to pumpkins, gourds and other seasonal fare. As can be seen in the slideshows attached to this article, it’s a treat for zoo visitors, as well.
It's good for the animals and it's fun for zoo visitors to watch: Zoos across the nation give their zoo residents pumpkins and let them do as they please with them, whether that be to eat them, play with them or destroy them.
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There are many reasons for the seasonal treat, reports The Guardian on Oct. 17. According to Ron Evans, Cincinnati Zoo’s curator of primates, the pumpkins provide nutritional value. They also stimulate curiosity in the animals. Gigi Allianic, a spokeswoman for the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, said that the pumpkins “promote natural animal behavior and keep animals mentally stimulated.” The Detroit Zoo says that the pumpkins are part of a “comprehensive program...ensuring environments for animals are every-changing and appropriately complex.” Food items are often hidden inside the pumpkins to stimulate animals’ innate stalking and foraging behaviors.
Some zoos place pumpkins and jackolanterns for their resident birds, owls, lions, chimpanzees and even snakes. Zoo employees and volunteers set the pumpkins out even if the animals don’t like the pumpkins, leaving them to do with the pumpkins as they please. Sometimes, the animals eat them. Sometimes, they play with them. Sometimes animals hide inside of the carved out pumpkins, while other times, they simply destroy them.
Earlier this month, Assiniboine Park Zoo treated the resident polar bears to the autumnal fruit. Pumpkins were placed around their zoo enclosure and it wasn’t long before the bears began eating them. Morning visitors got to watch the bears tear through their seasonal treat.
At the Detroit Zoo, treat-filled pumpkins, gourds and cornstalks captivated audiences as the bears, giraffes, wolves, apes, zebras, anteaters and wolverines, amongst others, ate and played with the pumpkins set inside of their enclosures.
To see more zoo animals interacting with their fall pumpkins, check out these slideshows at the New York Post,WFMY News, and Salon.com.
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