MURCHISON, Texas – Some of the nearly 800 animals at a Texas animal sanctuary are celebrating Halloween a little early after caretakers gave them pumpkins.
Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison houses nearly 40 species and to celebrate the fall season, tigers, monkeys, bears, tortoises and pigs were given pumpkins.
Staff captured some of the animals chowing down and playing with their pumpkins.
Black Beauty director Noelle Almrud told KSAT the tigers Elsa, Loki and India “had a blast investigating the large round gourds, batting them around like soccer balls. They tackled, chased, pounced and then swam in their pools with the pumpkins.”
Eve the bear rolled her pumpkin around before chowing down and the pigs ate the entire pumpkin in record time.
“The other species enjoyed pulling the pumpkins apart and nibbling like our marmoset Abu, or just tearing them to shreds and sticking their whole faces in like our bears,” said Almrud. “We always try to incorporate seasonal enrichment activities with our animals to keep them busy and healthy.”
Check out the playful pumpkin shenanigans in the video player above.