Sweet: Trick-or-Treating Weekends Begin at the LA Zoo

Critters have been cronching pumpkins — chomp, chomp, chomp — and arachnids have been crawling — scurry, scurry, scurry — and the decorations of Boo at the LA Zoo have been inspiring visitors to take photos — click, click, click — throughout October.

There has been, in short, a festive flurry of seasonal activity at the world-famous animal park, with several pre-Halloween happenings adding an autumn-sweet aura to the area.

But one of the most major of Halloween-y events is about to begin at the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens: trick-or-treating, which will yummily roll out over the final two weekends of the month.

True, the "Boo"-tiful events, from educational presentations to photo opportunities, will occur daily through Monday, Oct. 31.

But if your tots would like to stroll around and collect treats, you'll want to visit the Griffith Park destination on Oct. 22, 23, 29, or 30, the month's remaining Saturdays and Sundays.

Paid admission or membership to the zoo covers the trick-or-treat fun, which is presented by MARS. So, you bet: The goodies will include M&Ms, Snickers, Twix, and other well-known treats.

And speaking of M&Ms? Some will be calling upon the park for "photo opps and high fives," so if you see M&Ms greeting guests, be sure to stop for a snapshot.

If your children can arrive with their own bags for treats, the zoo team would be most appreciative. (It will help "reduce waste," and promote "sustainable practices," shares LA Zoo.)

Oh yes: And costumes are totally welcome and encouraged, so be sure that your crew is in their coolest holiday get-ups.

As far as ghouly goings-on beyond the goodies?

Education stations, snake-y sights around LAIR, pumpkin cronching among some of the bigger animals, and experiments performed by a "mad" scientist will all playfully pop up throughout the last weekends of October.