Lake Superior Zoo Offers Special Treats for Animals on Halloween

DULUTH, Minn.–It’s not just humans getting treats on Halloween, animals are too!

On Monday, the Lake Superior Zoo’s Egyptian fruit bats were chowing down on some fresh fruit.

Then a few hours later, staff fed giant pumpkins to their two brown bears named Tundra and Banks.

The giant pumpkins had been displayed for “Boo at the Zoo” that visitors could take photos with before becoming bear food.

For the humans stopping by, staff handed out candy to guests who swung by the gift shop today.

“So every day we give our animals enrichment,” director of animal management, Lizzy Larson, said. “Enrichment is a way of being able to change up their lives and give them choices throughout their day. So today we’re giving them these giant pumpkins so they can decide what they want to do with them. If they want to destroy them they can, if they want to eat them they can, if they want to swim with them they can, so this just gives them the ability to do something they normally wouldn’t be able to do because we don’t have giant pumpkins every single day here at the zoo.”.

The zoo says it’s “Boo at the Zoo” multi-weekend event saw a record turnout after more than 11,000 visitors attended.

Soon the zoo will start stringing up Christmas lights and blowing up inflatable displays for its annual “Zoo Lights” holiday tradition.