{"id":221679,"date":"2025-10-18T02:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221679\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T02:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T02:34:06","slug":"oregon-zoo-elephants-squish-sizable-squashes-for-a-delighted-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221679\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Zoo elephants squish sizable squashes for a delighted audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elephants<\/a> at the Oregon Zoo<\/a> got to crush and eat giant pumpkins to the delight of a crowd.<\/p>\n

The Squishing of the Squash is the Oregon Zoo\u2019s annual festive fall animal enrichment activity for the resident elephants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gave our elephants some extra-large pumpkins to stomp on and chomp on,\u201d said elephant overseer at the Oregon Zoo Steve Lefave. \u201cFirst they squashed them, then they noshed them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The squishing dates back to 1999 when a prize-winning 828-pound pumpkin was dropped off by Hoffman\u2019s Dairy Garden, a grower in Canby, for the elephants at the zoo.<\/p>\n

Now, almost 30 years later, the tradition continues and attracts a crowd. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s pumpkins, which included a whopping 1,000-pounder, were provided by Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers Club. <\/p>\n

The Oregon Zoo\u2019s newest (and possibly cutest) elephant Tula-Tu<\/a> was too small to participate in the squishing this year. To make up for it, care staff gave her a small pumpkin of her own, which she kicked around for a while like an adorable soccer star.<\/p>\n

While squishing squashes helps enrich the elephants, the Oregon Zoo also uses the opportunity to spread its message of conservation through education.<\/p>\n

The zoo established a $1 million endowment fund to help advance conservation across all 13 counties where Asian elephants are native.<\/p>\n

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elephants at the Oregon Zoo got to crush and eat giant pumpkins to the delight of a crowd.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[51214,64,63,134827,55613,63154,128,134828,134829,134830,338],"class_list":["post-221679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-asian-elephant","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ke","tag-ks","tag-pumpkin","tag-science","tag-shine","tag-squishing-of-the-squash","tag-sung-sarin","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}