Creepy crawlers, exotic animals thrill families at Wildlife Festival
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/03/2015 (4000 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Wide-eyed, curious children had the chance to touch tarantulas, see a bald eagle up close and watch a giant snake slither in its enclosure at the Wildlife Festival.
The exotic animals were on display at the Keystone Centre on Saturday and Sunday as part of a cross-country tour, hosted by Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo and the Canadian Raptor Conservancy.
“We both travel all across Canada, basically teaching people about all about animals … and about what they can do to help,” said Colin Newbigging, zookeeper with Little Ray’s Reptile Zoo.
The festival aims to educate people about endangered animals and explain how they have helped a wide variety of creatures.
“Most of the animals that we have, if we didn’t have them they would have been euthanized,” Newbigging said. “So every year we take in literally hundreds and hundreds of animals.”
Newbigging said they are sending 41 crocodilians down to South Carolina so they can live a more natural life.
“Obviously Canada is not the best place to live if you’re a crocodile or alligator, so we’re sending them all down there to live in big, natural outdoor enclosures,” he said.
Little Ray’s is the largest exotic animal rescue in Canada and is based in Ottawa, while the Canadian Raptor Conservancy, a bird of prey rehabilitation centre, is also based in Ontario.
The festival was in Brandon for two days, and drew hundreds of families.
Trevor Coutts brought his children to the event as a learning experience.
“It’s good education for them,” he said. “We live in town right now … so they don’t get to see all the stuff that I grew up around on the farm like … bald eagles, all the hawks, all the creepy crawlers and turtles.”
Kara Wettig’s young children were interested in seeing the animals up close.
“It was a nice variety of animals and good for the kids to learn about different animals that are here,” she said.
“It’s nice to have something in Brandon that we can get the kids out to.”
Newbigging said a big misconception about zoos is that they pluck animals out of the wild. The reality is they are often rescued animals given to them by police or the humane society.
“Zoos have come a long way,” he said. “Nowadays, zoos are all about conservation … None of the animals are from the wild. They’re all here basically because they have nowhere else to go.”
» jaustin@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @jillianaustin
