Zoo animals to smash pumpkins

SYRACUSE, N.Y. >> The Rosamond Gifford Zoo will distribute dozens of Halloween pumpkins to its animals Sunday at the annual Squishing of the Squash animal enrichment event.

The public is invited to watch as various animals - from Amur leopards to Asian elephants to the Giant Pacific octopus – enjoy pumpkin treats throughout the day.

The event’s most popular highlight – the Pumpkin of Pachyderm Proportions – will meet its fate at the feet and trunks of the zoo’s elephant herd at 12:15 p.m. Sunday. This year’s giant pumpkin weighs 1,550 pounds and was grown and donated to the zoo by Walter Merriam of Fayetteville.

This year’s Squishing will be the first for baby elephant calf Ajay (“Ah-JYE”), who turns 1 in January, and for the twin Amur leopard cubs, Milo and Mina, born in June. The event is a fun way to educate the public about the animal enrichment programs practiced by accredited members of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) as part of their animal care requirements.

“Enrichment means offering the animals variety and the ability to make choices while eliciting their natural behaviors,” said Zoo Director Ted Fox. “We offer enrichments for our animals every day at the zoo, but for holidays like Halloween, we like to hold special events for people to see the animals engage with their enrichments.”

For the Squishing of the Squash event, zookeepers collect all the pumpkins that decorated the zoo for Zoo Boo to give to the animals. New this year, they carved pumpkins to reflect the animal recipients’ conservation status. Visitors will see animals receive pumpkins carved with conservation abbreviations such as “VU” for “Vulnerable,” “EN” for “Endangered” and “CR” for “Critically Endangered” to highlight the zoo’s mission of saving endangered species.

“We hope that by sharing this information, even in a fun way, with our visitors, we may inspire them to support efforts to save these animals from extinction,” Fox said.

The event is co-sponsored by the zoo’s chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK), the zoo’s Conservation Committee and Friends of the Zoo.

The Squishing of the Squash runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and is free to zoo members or with zoo admission.

The schedule (subject to change) is:

• 10:30 a.m. Patas monkeys, Siamangs, Golden lion tamarins

– Social Animals wing

• 10:45 a.m. Amur leopards – Social Animals wing

• 11:15 a.m. Contact Barn & Outdoor birds – outdoor zoo

• 11:30 a.m. American bison, Gray wolves – Wildlife Trail

• 11:45 a.m. Takin & Markhor – Wildlife Trail

• 12:15 a.m. Asianelephants – Helga Beck Asian Elephant Preserve

• 12:45 p.m. Snow leopards – Wildlife Trail

• 1 p.m. Red panda, Andean bears – Wildlife Trail

• 1:30 p.m. Komodo dragon – Social Animals wing

• 1:45 p.m. River otters – Animal Adaptations

• 2 p.m. Sloths – Animal Adaptations

• 2:15 p.m. Giant Pacific octopus – Upper lobby

• 2:30 p.m. River turtles – USS Antiquities cave

• 3 p.m. Indoor Birds & Radiated tortoise – Diversity of Birds aviary

SUBMITTED PHOTO The Rosamond Gifford Zoo will see animals smash pumpkins and highlight their endangered status.