The hippopotamus has a truly spectacular mouth: Its powerful jaws can swing open almost 180 degrees, presenting a four-foot-wide maw bearing canine tusks.
Those terrifying teeth are appropriately applied to the autumnal season of horror: In this video from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, the king of viral zoo videos, hippos are seen kicking off the zoo’s HallZooween season by snacking on whole pumpkins as casually as the average trick-or-treater might crunch a malt ball.
The elephants, too, get in on the harvest at the zoo, though they seem to prefer first to play with, and then smash, the orange treats with their feet.
The pumpkin feast video is a perennial delight from zoos, and it is strangely hard to resist. Given the Halloween season, perhaps it’s partly the comfort of knowing it’s not your own personal gourd that’s in peril.
