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Trunk Or Treat: Zoo's Beasts Get A Pumpkin Feast

Tribune photo by CLIFF MCBRIDE

Elephants at the Lowry Park Zoo enjoy their pumpkin treats Friday.

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By LENORA LAKE

llake@tampatrib.com

Published: October 18, 2008

TAMPA - For the Lowry Park Zoo elephants, it was one pumpkin in their mouths and another waiting in their trunks.

With one chomp and a couple of slurps, they smashed and devoured whole pumpkins weighing several pounds as they held the next big bite in their long, flexible snouts.

At the zoo's annual Animals' Pumpkin Toss on Friday, red river hogs, striped hyenas, pygmy hippos and warthogs also received pumpkins and fruit treats.

Crowds cheered as zookeepers tossed the Halloween-themed treats to the animals.

"This is a form of enrichment," Carmen Sanders, the zoo's assistant curator, said. "A grandiose one - a seasonal enrichment. And food is a good motivator."

Enrichment stimulates the animals and changes their environment. It is offered daily in various forms, such as alfalfa hay.

This year was the first year the hyenas were included in the holiday event, Sanders said.

Their pumpkins were filled with meat. One hyena carried a top into the den; one stuck its head into the pumpkin like a big feeding bowl; another pushed a pumpkin into the moat surrounding the compound.

The party poopers of the day?

The hippos. Mother and baby simply ignored the treats and headed for a soak in their water pool in the hot midday sun.

Correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851.

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