West Midland Safari park treats animals to pumpkin fun
To celebrate the spookiest of seasons, a safari park has been treating its furry, feathered and slippery residents with some peculiar pumpkin enrichment.
As part of the West Midland Safari Park's month-long Spooky Spectacular festival, more than 1,700 pumpkins were ordered to help theme the the park's different areas.
Any surplus pumpkins were then donated to the wildlife team, who use them as part of the animals' important enrichment programme and filled with the animal's favourite food – fish for the penguins, insects for the meerkats, or meat for the lions.
Amber, the park's youngest lioness, snatched the pumpkin up straight away and fiercely guarded it, while penguins could be spotted warily avoiding the pumpkins to begin with.
Meerkat keeper, Michelle Howes, said: "We regularly provide the animals with environmental enrichment and the meerkats really loved the pumpkins.
"Being naturally inquisitive little creatures, the pumpkins went down a treat, allowing them to exhibit natural behaviours of foraging, playing and burrowing.
"As pumpkins are a seasonal treat, they offered lots of new tastes and smells.
"We really enjoyed watching the meerkats explore their pumpkin tower, searching for the mealworms we had filled each pumpkin with.
"When they had finally found every last mealworm, we did not let the pumpkins go to waste — we recycled the left overs by giving them to the hippos later in the day."
Spooky Spectacular runs until October 31 with opening hours extended until 9pm on weekends, October half-term and Halloween.
The festival is included in the standard admission charge of £22 for adults, £17 for children aged 3-15 years and £20 for concessions.
Children under the age of 3 years are admitted free of charge.
For further information visit www.wmsp.co.uk or call 01299 402114.
