ROYAL OAK, Mich., October 27, 2008 – Detroit Zoo animals will have a smashing good time on Saturday, November 1, 2008, when they receive pumpkins filled with tasty treats and scents – to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and smash.  Each year the Zoo’s enrichment staff uses leftover items from the annual Zoo Boo – including pumpkins, gourds and hay stalks – as special holiday treats for the animals.

According to Enrichment and Research Coordinator Elizabeth Arbaugh, the primates’ pumpkins will be carved out and filled with red-colored pasta.  “The chimps enjoy digging in and eating the ghoulish spaghetti,” she said.  Arbaugh predicts that the other animals will enjoy pushing, playing with, smashing and devouring their treats.

Enrichment Schedule:
• 10:15 a.m. – The chimps at the Great Apes of Harambee will monkey around with their special treats. 
• 10:30 a.m. – The vultures will scavenge their leftovers. 
• 11:30 a.m. – Jock the hippo will smash and nosh his pumpkins. 
• 12:30 p.m. – The bear dens will be in an uproar as the residents chow down on their post-holiday feast.
• 1:30 p.m. – The bison will push and play with their plethora of pumpkins. 
• 2:30 p.m. – The wolverines will indulge in a post-Halloween fiesta while tearing into a treat-filled piñata.

The Zoo Boo leftovers are one of the many forms of enrichment used daily at the Detroit Zoo to help make the environments of the animals more complex and engaging.  Enrichment is described as the process of enhancing overall captive animal welfare by providing appropriate physical, social and environmental conditions and stimuli.

The Detroit Zoological Society is a non-profit organization that operates the Detroit Zoo and Belle Isle Nature Zoo.  Situated on 125 acres of naturalistic exhibits, the Detroit Zoo is located at the intersection of Ten Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, just off I-696, in Royal Oak.  The Detroit Zoo is open daily 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. November through March and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April through October.  Admission is $11 for adults 13 to 61, $9 for senior citizens 62 and older, and $7 for children ages 2 to 12; children under 2 are free.  For more information, call (248) 541-5717 or visit www.detroitzoo.org.  The Belle Isle Nature Zoo is open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. year-round and provides educational programming with interpretive staff support from the Huron-Clinton Metroparks.  For more information, call (313) 852-4056. 
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