LIVE: Red River Valley Sportsmen’s Show

It's still a bit cold to jump into lakes season. But we've found some friends to cuddle up with.

The ice is still melting off the lakes in our region, but there’s no reason we can’t dive right on in to the fun at the Red River Valley Sportsmen’s Show.

Billed as the region’s biggest outdoor recreation show, the show runs all weekend long at the Fargodome.

It has everything from a half-million dollar recreational vehicle, to boats, charter fishing trips, hunting seminars, and wildlife encounters.

And of course, that’s where you’d find the Morning Show’s Emily Welker.

She caught up with the reptile keepers at Scales and Tails Utah, in town to share some encounters and educational information about their beautiful and misunderstood animals.

You can get an up-close look (and sometimes a cuddle) with Darthgator the American Alligator, Twinkletoes the Sulkata tortoise, Knobby the Granite Burmese Python, Goldilocks the Ball Python, and Ricky, the Tegu.

Not only will you learn some fascinating facts about a wide variety of uncommon reptiles, but you can also get a better understanding of the reptiles native to the Upper Midwest.

Keepers Tyson Garcia and Jeremy Westerman visited with Emily live on the show to explain why reptiles are so critical not just to our region’s agricultural industry and the greater ecosystem — they’re also a lot of fun to have around.