Zoos and botanical gardens find Halloween programs are hit

Enormous warty pumpkins. Carnivorous plants. Immersive arachnid displays. Slithering snakes and fluttering bats. And illuminated displays of hundreds, or thousands, of ornately carved jack-o’-lanterns.

Zoos and botanical gardens have become increasingly popular Halloween destinations. Their haunting array of natural installations and spooky events provide a fun addition, or alternative, to traditional trick-or-treating.

They also are a teachable moment, naturalists and conservationists say.

“Fall is a celebration of the natural world, so Halloween and botanical gardens are an organic pairing,” said Michaela Wright, manager of interpretive content at the New York Botanical Garden, where October is “Fall-o-Ween.” The garden’s Halloween offerings began with a haunted greenhouse tour about 50 years ago, she says, “and it continues to evolve and expand.”

This year, there’s a Halloween pumpkin patch that includes exotic heritage varieties in blues, pinks and other surprising colors, in addition to varieties covered in warts. Master pumpkin carver Adam Bierton, a sculptor from Rochester, N.Y., known for his life-like jack-o’-lanterns, hosts weekend pumpkin-carving events. And of course there is the annual display of giant pumpkins, some weighing in at well over 2,000 pounds each.

At the Chicago Botanic Garden, the “Night of 1,000 Jack-o’-Lanterns” features elaborately painted and carved pumpkins, along with costumed entertainers, pumpkin-carving demos, and festive food. The garden’s online adult education classes include one on “Ghoulish Plants and Folklore,” and a Halloween Hub with information about seasonal plants and pumpkins.

Zoos too

Many zoos, meanwhile, are hosting Halloween programming with names like “Boo at the Zoo,” or “Zoo Boo.”

“We started hosting what we call “HalGLOween” back in 2017 and it’s become one of our biggest draws of the year, providing a huge audience for our conservation messages,” said Lisa Martin, a wildlife care ambassador for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

The event started as a weekend in October, and was so popular it was expanded to two weekends, she said. It’s now held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for most of October, and Halloween has become one of the most popular times of the year at the zoo.

This year’s “HalGLOween” features a “Skeleton Band,” a “Boo Crew” of scarecrow stilt-walkers, and an illuminated “Python Path” through the reptile house, among other events.