For many of us reptiles, snakes, and spiders we all find somewhat interesting and in this part of the world even more so due to the rare opportunity to see a 20 foot crocodile.
Just 15 minutes from Brandon you can find a vast array of exotic animals that is perhaps one of the largest in Canada. Westman Reptile Gardens has been around for almost 15 years and a passion for owners Dave and Candi Shelvey. According to Dave he has always been involved to some degree with reptiles for the past 20 years but things got a bit crazy in their house and it was time to expand and make this a real business.
An interesting side business evolved and that was providing and handling snakes and spiders to movies and TV productions.
Mothers Day
Escape of Die
A Bear Called Winnie
Wishmaster 3
The Box Collector
And also Alice Cooper
The above listed ave all used Dave and Westman Reptile Gardens over the past decade.
But as anything in small business nothing comes easy and to get highway signs showing people where to turn off the highways was a 5 year project to get the Province on board to see that this was indeed a very unique and interesting form of tourism for the Western Manitoba region.
Westman Reptile Gardens features various venomous snakes such as pythons, cobras and vipers plus a huge collection of alligators and crocs.
You can visit them:
Until September 30th – Monday to Saturday 11am – 7 pm and Sundays 12pm – 5 pm and after October 1st Tuesday to Saturday 12 pm – 6 pm and Sundays 12 pm – 5 pm
