Karin Brulliard reports Pumpkin spice has infiltrated America’s zoos. Some trends reach far, very far. Brulliard writes that
From September — make that late August — through the end of the calendar year, or for as long as supplies last, no American is far from the seasonal scent of pumpkin spice.
Not even American zoo animals.
The powder is sprinkled in lion enclosures at Smithsonian’s National Zoo. It is dotted in the exhibit that’s home to Fred, an American elk at the Oklahoma City Zoo. It is dusted about the living space of bears and foxes at the Cincinnati Zoo. And these animals love it, keepers say.
But few furry creatures embrace the pumpkin spice lifestyle as enthusiastically as Bei Bei, the National Zoo’s young panda, who was introduced to the autumnal additive last year and immediately doused his head with it. His caretakers sometimes use pumpkin spice to lace a rotted log, creating a combination that Bei Bei finds bewitching.