Get the kids out of the house for Thanksgiving and head to the Santa Barbara Zoo for a smashing good time.
Watch as the elephants and other zoo animals play and interact with pumpkins.
Large pumpkins will be given to the zoo’s two Asian elephants at 11 a.m. Wednesday. On Thursday, the elephants will again receive pumpkins, as will African lions, Western lowland gorillas, snow leopard, Amur leopard, white-handed gibbons, desert tortoises, Asian long-clawed otters, crested porcupines and others.
Keepers often give the elephants special food treats. They predict that Suzi and Little Mac will smell, kick, eat and squash the large squashes, which have been donated to the zoo. Mac may swim in the exhibit pond to grab a floating pumpkin or two.
The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving — the perfect outing for the family while the turkey is in the oven. Tickets will be sold until 2 p.m.
— Julia McHugh is a publicist.