Oregon Zoo elephants to smash 800-pound 'Gourdzilla' for annual Squishing of the Squash

We carve them, pick them, roast their seeds, bake them into pies, but how about smashing them?

Pumpkins signal that the fall season is here, so it's only right that they're incorporated in endless ways.

In prelude to the Oregon Zoo's 'Howloween,' an Asian elephant family will show off their pumpkin smashing skills at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17 for the 26th annual Squishing of the Squash.

“We’ll be giving our elephant family some extra-large pumpkins to stomp on and chomp on,” Steve Lefave, who oversees the zoo’s Asian elephant area, said in a release. “First they destroy them, then they enjoy them.”

Dating back to 1999, the tradition started when Hoffman's Dairy Garden of Canby dropped off a prize-winning 828-pound pumpkin for the elephant family. Oftentimes farmers would offer their overstock pumpkins for the zoo's use in animal enrichment activities, which includes stimulating and challenging environments and objects.

This year's pumpkins were provided by Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers Club member Larry Nelson and his daughter, Amanda Gilmour.

Leading into the annual Howloween celebration, which takes place later this month, this squash smashing starts the Halloween festivities ahead of kiddos showing off costumes and more to come.

Considered a highly endangered species in their range countries, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, conflict with humans and disease, according to the zoo. About 40,000 to 50,000 of them remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo, and their home range overlaps with some of the most populous human areas on the planet. There are 20% of people worldwide live in or next to Asian elephant habitat.

The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its elephant care program, which has spanned more than 60 years. The zoo supports a broad range of efforts to help wild elephants and has established a $1 million endowment fund supporting Asian elephant conservation.

To plan your trip, go to oregonzoo.org/visit .