ROYAL OAK, Mich., October 23, 2009 – Detroit Zoo animals will have a smashing good time on Wednesday, October 28, 2009, when they receive pumpkins filled with tasty treats and scents – to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and smash.  Each year around Halloween, the Zoo’s environmental enrichment staff uses pumpkins, gourds and corn stalks as special holiday treats for the animals.

Enrichment items are hidden throughout the animals’ habitats or prepared and placed in a unique manner to stimulate various behaviors.  For example, the primates’ pumpkins will be carved out and filled with red-colored pasta.  “The chimps enjoy digging in and eating the ghoulish spaghetti,” said Enrichment Programs Manager Elizabeth Arbaugh.  She predicts the other animals will enjoy pushing, playing with, smashing and devouring their treats.

Enrichment Schedule:
• 10 a.m. – Chimpanzees (spaghetti-filled pumpkins)
• 10:30 a.m. – Storks (pumpkins)
• 11 a.m. – Snow monkeys (JELL-O treats)
• 11:30 a.m. – Rhinos (pumpkins and corn stalks)
• Noon – Zebras (corn stalks)
• 12:30 p.m. – Grizzly bears (treat-filled piñata)
• 1 p.m. – Bison (pumpkins and corn stalks)
• 1:30 p.m. – Wolverines (piñata, pumpkins and spaghetti)
• 2 p.m. – Polar bears (pumpkins)

The Halloween treats are among the many forms of enrichment used daily at the Detroit Zoo to help make the environments of the animals more dynamic and engaging.  Environmental enrichment includes the introduction of novel and sometimes unpredictable elements such as objects, sounds, scents or other stimuli that encourage the animals to respond in species-typical ways, give them choice and control over their environment, and engage them in “work” to obtain food, much as they would in the wild.

For more, visit http://www.detroitzoo.org/Animals/Enrichment/Enrichment/.

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 5 p.m. through October, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. November through March and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April through Labor Day (with extended hours until 8 p.m. Wednesdays during July and August).  Admission is $11 for adults 15 to 61, $9 for senior citizens 62 and older, and $7 for children ages 2 to 14; 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.  Admission is free.  For more information, call (313) 852-4056. 
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