Meet a sloth, wrangle a wallaby or pose with a porcupine at the Wildlife Festival Mar. 8-10 at the Agri-food Hub and Trade Centre. 

Featuring three exhibits, the Wildlife Festival presents “Living Dragons,” “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Diversity of Living Things.” Learn about reptilian connections to the mythical world of dragons, meet snakes and other animals that inhabit the world’s jungles and explore the marvels of evolution and adaptation in the animal kingdom. 

“It’s a unique experience – where you get to be close to animals you wouldn’t necessarily get to anywhere else,” says Wildlife Festival Assistant Manager Wil DenHertog. “It’s for people who love learning about animals – whether it be adults or children. It’s a super cool opportunity to get information on them, but also interact with them.”  

According to DenHertog, there’s so much going on at the festival, including two alternating stage shows discussing a few of the animals on tour. “We have open pens with animals people can walk up and pet. And we have people in the pens that can talk about them. We have reptiles out on the floor you can approach and pet.”

One of the biggest motives of the travelling show is teaching people about exotic animals, notes DenHertog. “A lot of the time we run into people who got an animal and had to surrender an animal they didn’t research before they got it. We are trying to teach people animals a lot of people find fearful are not that scary. They can make good pets, but please do your research first.” 

The travelling festival, DenHertog adds, fully funds itself, allowing the festival to continue educating southern Albertans. “What we raise through our experiences, our admission and through our merchandise sales all goes back into the tour.” 

For more information visit wildlifefestival.ca/cities/lethbridge.