FANCY FOOT SKILLS. Asian elephant calf Tula-Tu plays with a pumpkin at the Oregon Zoo in Portland. Tula-Tu had more tricks than treats to show when zoo keepers gave her a small pumpkin to play with during the annual "Squishing of the Squash," a fall event at which giant elephants smash huge pumpkins. At just 775 pounds, eight-month-old Tula-Tu weighs less than the giant pumpkins, which are typically 800 to 1,000 pounds. (Kathy Street/Oregon Zoo)

The Asian elephant family participated in the "Squishing of the Squash" at the Oregon Zoo on October 16, 2025. The elephants delicately placed one foot at the top of each pumpkin and gently pressed down. The pumpkins cracked with a loud pop, sending rind and seeds flying. (AR Photo/Jennifer Lim)

Video of the Elephant Squash

From The Asian Reporter, V35, #11 (November 3, 2025), page 15.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A baby elephant at the Oregon Zoo had more tricks than treats to show when handlers gave her a small pumpkin to play with during an annual fall event at which giant elephants smash huge pumpkins.

Weighing just 775 pounds, eight-month-old Asian elephant Tula-Tu is about the heft of one of the giant pumpkins so she was too small to smash them. Instead, zoo handlers gave her a small pumpkin to practice with. The little elephant dribbled the gourd around like a soccer ball, a video from the zoo showed.

Her elephant family at the Oregon Zoo enjoyed the large pumpkins on October 16 at the annual "Squishing of the Squash," a tradition that goes back to 1999 when a farmer donated a pumpkin weighing 828 pounds. The donated pumpkins have gotten bigger, around 1,000 pounds this year, thanks to competitive hobbyists at the Pacific Giant Vegetable Growers Club.

To break open the gargantuan gourds, zookeepers present them to Tula-Tu’s adult relatives like her mother and auntie, or brother and father, who weigh slightly over 10,000 pounds. In a video from the zoo, the elephants delicately place one foot at the top and gently press down. The pumpkins crack with a loud pop, sending rind and seeds flying.

Past years’ videos have shown midsized, young elephants putting both feet on top of the pumpkins but being too light — or lacking technique — so the giant vegetables don’t burst.

The adults elephants smashed the massive pumpkins in front of a cheering crowd of zoo visitors, and then the family of elephants ate the many squash fragments.

Asian elephants like Tula-Tu and her family are considered highly endangered, according to Oregon Zoo officials. There is a fragmented population of around 40,000 to 50,000 such elephants in the wild in places ranging from India to Borneo, a Southeast Asian island straddling Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. But there have been successful conservation milestones in recent years, including in Cambodia.