Smashing Pumpkins (Not the Band) Event Returns to Zoo: Gallery

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Some days, it pays to be a bear — or a chimpanzee, snow monkey, zebra, giraffe or any number of animals at the Detroit Zoo.

That day is coming up Wednesday, Oct. 14, when zoo animals will receive pumpkins filled with treats to eat, play with, roll around in, tear apart and — wait for it — smash.

As a matter of course throughout the year, food items are hidden throughout the animals’ habitats or prepared and placed in order to stimulate natural behaviors such as foraging or stalking.

But “around Halloween, seasonal fare from local Michigan producers gives this activity a special appeal for both zoo visitors and the animals,” Scott Carter, the Detroit Zoological Society’s chief life sciences officer, said in a news release.

If you want to time your zoo visit around the animals’ smashing good time, here’s the schedule for Oct. 14:

• 10:30 a.m. – great apes (treat-filled pumpkins)
• 11 a.m. – snow monkeys (Halloween ice treats)
• 11:30 a.m. – zebras (Halloween treats)
• Noon – giraffes (Halloween treats)
• 12:30 p.m. – polar bears (pumpkins)
• 1 p.m. – grizzly bears (pumpkins)
• 1:30 p.m. – gray wolves (Halloween treats)
• 2 p.m. – wolverines (piñata, pumpkins and spaghetti)
• 2:30 p.m. – anteaters (Halloween treats)

» All photos courtesy of the Detroit Zoo