Carved pumpkins filled with a selection of tasty treats have been proving popular with animals at Longleat Safari & Adventure Park.
Keepers provided a selection of their residents with the early Halloween present.
Among the grateful recipients were the park’s trio of Amur tigers – whose pumpkin was suspended on a rope like a giant cat’s toy.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the troupe of mischievous macaque monkeys wasted little time in investigating their own treat-filled squashes and other pumpkins offered a novel new attraction for both the park’s family of anteaters and red panda.
Even Tali, a female boa constrictor, managed to get in on the act.
Longleat’s Ian Turner said: “It’s become something of a tradition for us to have a competition to see which members of staff can come up with the best carved pumpkin.
“However for the animals, the pumpkins’ appearance was of a lot less interest than what was inside as we had hidden a variety of treats within them.
“The tigers in particular got very excited and were literally leaping off the ground to get to theirs and the anteaters made good use of their extra-long tongues to give the inside of their pumpkin a thorough inspection.
“Once again though it was the monkeys who seemed to get the most from the experience as they not only got all the treats inside but also used the pumpkin as a swing before then breaking it up in to smaller segments and sharing it amongst them.".
Human visitors can also join in the Halloween-themed fun with Longleat’s Halloween Spooktacular Festival running until November 4 featuring everything from ghost trains and giant pumpkin trails, spooky tours of Longleat house, Halloween shows and fireworks’ displays.
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