Pumpkin play for safari animals

Lions at Blair Drummond Safari Park enjoy a Halloween treat Enlarge Image

Lions and meerkats at a safari park near Stirling have been given an unusual treat to mark Halloween.

Staff at Blair Drummond Safari Park prepared pumpkins for the animals, which they said offered something a bit different from the usual meal treat.

The park's 12 lions made light work of the Halloween favourite, along with the meerkats and common marmosets.

The park's keepers also scooped out the insides of the vegetable to make soup for some of the other animals.

Pet farm keeper Carolyn Morrison said: "The marmosets and meerkats tend to eat fruit and crickets or beetles so the pumpkins are something out of the ordinary for them."