Halloween a ‘Spooktacular’ day at Chehaw | PHOTOS

ALBANY — Crawlers weren’t the only creepy things at Chehaw on Halloween. Saturday turned out to be a Spooktacular event.

Mobile users can view part 1 of the Chehaw photos here.

And that’s what Chehaw officials were hoping for. The park’s zoo plaza was crowded with families who had some out for carnival-type games, rides through the African Veldt, and a costume contest that awarded the winners a behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo.

Mobile users can view part 2 of the Chehaw photos here.

Morgan Burnette, sporting a deer outfit, said the Spooktacular, which ran 10 a.m.-2 p.m., was the successor to the park’s Boo at the Zoo, which had run its course.

“We saw a need to do a Halloween event,” Chehaw’s public relations coordinator said.

Across the plaza, there were a number of games, including a plastic duck pond situated adjacent to a pool with a real duck in it, a go-fishing game, pumpkin bowling, beanbag throws and ball tosses. And some visitors were brave enough to try to find the magic key to open a coffin.

Burnette said attendance has been good at the park on Saturdays, but that the event appeared to have concentrated the crowd. “It’s a bigger crowd at one time than on a regular Saturday,” she said. “They’ve come out, a lot of them in costume, for the Spooktacular. We couldn’t be any happier.”

The highlight was the 1 p.m. costume contest, which was conducted like a fashion show in the covered pavilion at the plaza.

“We’ve had some of the people come out just for the contest,” Burnette said before the show started. “We’ve seen some really cool costumes out here. It’s going to be tough to choose.”

The kids walked in front of the stands one by one as their names were announced. There were superheroes, zombies, Star Wars characters, grim reapers, Wizard of Oz characters, ninjas and others.

One of the winners was Lilly, who was dressed like a corpse complete with a headband of roses and haunting makeup.

Her mom, Vicky Leister, said they came out specifically for the contest. “It was just for her to have fun,” she said.

Lilly said she came up with the idea for her undead look. “I decided on my costume and my mommy helped me design my costume,” she said, just before she was announced as the winner of the youngest age group.

Jayden Thorson won the 7-13 year old group with his costume designed to look like Capt. Rex of the Star Wars Clone Wars series. One of the judges said they were impressed that he had been able to create at home a costume that at first glance looked like one purchased from a store. First place in the 13-and-old category went to a contestant named Crystal who was dressed up like Dorothy of “Wizard of Oz” fame.

With all the Halloween activities, the zoo animals were still a focal point. One contest that was conducted was a chance to win a behind-the-scenes zoo tour by being the person who most closely guessed the weight of a sulcata tortoise that kids could see fenced area on the plaza. Guesses were $1 each, with the funds generated going to the park’s conservation mission.

Also known as the African spurred tortoise, the sulcata tortoise is native to the Sahara Desert and Sahel. Adults can get up to 3 feet in length and can weigh in around 95 pounds.

“They (children) have fun, but it’s also a good conservation message,” said Jackie Entz, the Chehaw education coordinator who emceed the costume contest. “When you get these sulcata tortoises, they’re really small and you might think they’ll stay that small, but they don’t. They get pretty big.

“That tortoise is, maybe, 15 years old. They get really big, really quick.”