ROYAL OAK — Detroit Zoo animals will have a smashing good time on Oct. 23, when they receive pumpkins filled with tasty treats to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and smash.
Each year around Halloween, the zoo’s animal welfare staff provides environmental enrichment in the form of pumpkins, gourds and cornstalks as special holiday treats for the animals. The enrichment items are hidden throughout the animals’ habitats or prepared and placed in a unique manner to stimulate natural behaviors such as foraging or stalking.
Enrichment Schedule:
• 10:30 a.m. – river otters (Halloween ice treats)
• 11 a.m. – vultures (treat-filled pumpkins)
• 11:30 a.m. – tigers (piñata)
• Noon – gorillas and drills (treat-filled pumpkins)
• 12:30 p.m. – lions (piñata)
• 1 p.m. – polar bears (pumpkins)
• 1:30 p.m. – grizzly bears (pumpkins)
• 2 p.m. – wolverines (piñata, pumpkins and spaghetti)
• 2:30 p.m. – anteaters (Halloween treats)
For more information, visit detroitzoo.org
