One of the biggest attractions at the Wild Animal Park’s 32nd annual Garden Festival was the opportunity for our guests to carve a pumpkin. While this meant great fun for the guests, it meant even greater fun for several of the Park’s animal residents: pumpkins were recycled as toys for the animals! One of my co-workers, Michelle, and I decided to leave three carved pumpkins on exhibit at Lion Camp for our three adult lions, Mina, Oshana, and Izu. We stuffed the pumpkins with their favorite treat, beef heart, to entice them to investigate the new additions to their surroundings. Well, it turns out that the lions needed no extra incentives to play with the pumpkins—they were a hit!

The pumpkins were placed about 50 feet from the lion house and were easily visible to the lions as they exited the bedrooms for a fun-filled day on exhibit. As soon as the lions came out they ran straight to the pumpkins and began to play. I don’t think they even noticed the meat treats inside! The adults were playing as if they were cubs again, chasing each other around with pumpkins dangling from their mouths, batting the pumpkins around as if they were soccer balls, and always thinking that the pumpkin another lion was playing with was better than their own! Mina was the funniest of all: she was batting her pumpkin around like a soccer pro; when it started to roll down a hill, off she went full speed after it. She caught the rolling pumpkin with such finesse a summersault was the result! Izu had much more fun chasing the girls around than actually playing with the pumpkins himself; his biggest problem was deciding which of his girlfriends he wanted to go after.

The pumpkins kept the lions busy for about an hour, giving much amusement to Michelle and me as well as to the lucky first visitors to the Park. Unfortunately, as those of you familiar with Lion Camp know, the exhibit is surrounded by a moat or, in this case, an evil pumpkin trap! Mina and Oshana inevitably knocked two of the three pumpkins into the moat where they smashed upon hitting the concrete. Luckily, a broken pumpkin was not very interesting, and after a moment of looking into the moat, the cats were off to explore and investigate the exhibit properly as they do every morning. After such an exciting start to the day, what could we expect from our lion pride other than to do what lions do best: rest! The rest of the day was spent leisurely relaxing on the Range Rover, maybe dreaming of pumpkins and the fun they had.

Oh, and if you were wondering…all four cubs received pumpkins inside the house, hidden in boxes and bags with treats inside. It was a fun day for all of Lion Camp’s residents!

Kym Nelson is a keeper at the Wild Animal Park.

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