Elephants pulverize massive pumpkins for Halloween

A herd of elephants have got into the Halloween spirit by pulverising a batch of gigantic pumpkins in a US zoo as part of an annual tradition.

'Squishing of the Squash' is a yearly Halloween curtain raiser at Oregon Zoo, with this year's event of Portland pachyderm destruction having taken place on Friday.

The small herd of four Asian elephants take to the pumpkins with gusto, making the huge vegetables look like pieces of fine fragile china as they crumple under their weight.

"I don't want to disappoint the elephants with a little pumpkin," one pumpkin grower, Larry Nelson, told the zoo.

Mr Nelson managed to grow a 498 kilogram gourd especially for the elephants, Gizmodo reports.