Oklahoma City Zoo Shares Sustainability Efforts Ahead Of 'Haunt The Zoo' On The Porch

The Oklahoma City Zoo is gearing up for its annual "Haunt the Zoo" event in October, offering visitors the chance to trick-or-treat around the zoo and donate pumpkins for animal enrichment activities.

In addition to donating pumpkins for enrichment, the zoo uses sustainable practices by working with Goodwill to obtain linen and blanket donations that also enrich their animals.

"At Goodwill, part of our mission is to help give people here in Oklahoma a second chance at work, but it's also to find a second home for the items that are donated to our stores, and in this case, linens and blankets sometimes aren't the best quality to be able to be sold in our stores. So we go to our community partners, like Oklahoma City Zoo to find a second home for them," Melissa from Goodwill said.

Kim from the Zoo said they find many ways to use the donated items to help their animals.

"The gorillas, in particular, like to use these to shred. They'll put them in their nests, especially over the winter time, when it gets a little chillier, and that helps them keep warm," Kim said. "We have a lot of animals here that have a lot of different needs. They can be made into different enrichment items, whether we're braiding them or other things like that."

The community can get involved and provide enrichment items by donating a pumpkin and getting 50% off admission to the Zoo in October.

Every weekend in October, the zoo will host its annual "Haunt the Zoo" event, during which children can trick or treat throughout the zoo.

CLICK HERE for more information on Haunt the Zoo.