Zoos Ring Tailed Lemurs Transform Into Monsters Wearing Pumpkins On Their Heads For Halloween

This is the moment a cheeky ring-tailed lemur put its head inside a carved pumpkin creating a more comical than scary Halloween photo.

The comical pictures were snapped after the ring-tailed lemurs and giant pandas at Vienna's Schonbrunn Zoo, which is the oldest in the world, were offered the chance of tucking into a pumpkin feast ahead of the arrival of Halloween.

The pumpkins filled with tasty snacks were placed into the cages or even hung on strings as enrichment for the animals, and entertainment for zoo visitors.

Zookeeper Nicolas Cabon said: “Ring-tailed lemurs are very bright. They couldn't wait to get the goodies out. And when everything was taken out, they then played with the pumpkins."

Some of the lemurs that were particularly curious even stuck their heads into the pumpkin from below, transforming themselves into creepy pumpkin monsters with the simple gesture.

It provided photographer Daniel Zupanc with the perfect material for this snap which was later shared with Newsflash.

The lemurs were however not the only beneficiaries of the Halloween feast, with the giant pandas also getting a pumpkin treat.

The Schonbrunn female panda, Yang Yang, was seen calmly inspecting her Halloween surprise in panda fashion and then took the goodies out of the orange autumn vegetable piece by piece.

Animal keeper Renate Haider said: “There were juicy bamboo shoots hidden in the pumpkin head. We used bamboo leaves as edible hair.

"Pandas mainly eat bamboo. They also like vegetables such as sweet potatoes, carrots or peppers, but pumpkin is not usually on their menu.”

That and the grinning face however did not deter the pandas from setting to work to cut up the pumpkins, slicing and dicing until the insides are exposed and the tasty treats could be gobbled up.

Renata added: "The pandas didn't waste any time demolishing the pumpkins, they only had to roll their big paws back and forth a few times, the pumpkins were quickly history."

German zoo in Vienna which is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Austrian capital Vienna was created in 1752.

The zoo which covers 17 hectares of land gets around 2 million visitors a year eager to see the 8,000 animals from 700 different species held at the near 300 years old zoo.

The ancient buildings at the centre of the various enclosures have been frequently modernised which has helped the zoo win the best zoo in Europe title five times between 2008 and 2018.

Tiergarten Schonbrunn/NF/James King