Photo supplied by the Wildlife Festival

By Curtis Galbraith

Community

Exotic animal show returns to Evergreen Park

Sep 6, 2024 | 3:26 PM

Snakes, sloths and various other creatures are part of the Wildlife Festival taking place this weekend at Evergreen Park.

The festival’s Logan MacDonald says they bring animals people don’t usually get to see to places like Grande Prairie “to show them off.”

“Our primary goal is to be able to be like ‘Hey, here’s a sloth, you’ve seen it up close, don’t get it as a pet, please,’ or, if you are going to get, say, a leopard gecko as a pet, please make sure you are doing proper care.”

“We bring those animals up close, so people can see them without necessarily needing to spend $1000 to fly down to Costa Rica or hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep one as a pet.”

MacDonald is the festival’s reptile specialist.

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“Our biggest girl that we have with us is a boa constrictor. Her name is Freyja. She is about eight feet long and about 35 pounds, so we’ve got everything from her size to our tortoise.”

“We have a crested gecko, we’ve got a leopard gecko, but we have so much more than just those two.”

MacDonald adds some of the animals were purchases, others are rescues.

Those rescues include the boa constrictor mentioned above that seized during a police raid in Edmonton.

“This guy, he had been hoarding any snake he could find for $100 or less on Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace kind of thing and, out of the roughly 40 animals he had, there are, to my knowledge, about 10 that are still alive.”

“We’re really, really happy to be able to take care of her and make sure that she is getting all the care she needs.”

MacDonald says there are reptiles people may not have heard off, plus mammals like porcupines and kangaroos.

Festival officials say any purchases are made from what they call “responsible and reputable sources” and that they only buy animals to be part of the exotic animal education programs.

The festival is open to everyone until 6:30 tonight then for adults only tonight from 7-9.

The festival is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Kids 3 and under get in free. Tickets are $16 each when booked ahead of time here or $20 at the door.

Money raised goes to the Calgary-based Cobbs Exotic Animal Rescue & Education Foundation.