‘Pure joy’: Exotic animal show in Regina hopes to educate and inspire

Exotic animals took over the REAL District in Regina this weekend.

It’s all part of the Wildlife Festival put on by the Calgary-based non-profit Cobb’s Exotic Animal Rescue.

A sugar glider at the Wildlife Festival in Regina. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

Wil DenHertog is an assistant manager with the travelling festival. She said it brings people “pure joy.”

“That’s why we do our job,” DenHertog said. “It’s incredibly amazing to see the joy on people’s faces to see these animals and to interact with them on a personal level.”

Read more:

The festival features over 50 exotic animals including reptiles like snakes and lizards, mammals like porcupines, kangaroos, anteaters and a fan favourite: sloths.

Anteaters can eat thousands of ants a day. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

DenHertog hopes people take away newfound knowledge about the animals. That’s one of the key components of the festival, learning about the exotic critters and how to take care of them properly.

It’s best to pet the porcupines from head to tail, as their quills are pointy. But the critters do not actually “shoot” their quills. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

“We have hands-on opportunities,” she said.

“We have exhibits they can look at. We also have stage shows throughout the day, with a more sit-down experience, if you’re into that. We allow petting of a lot of our animals for free.”

This tortoise is over 60 pounds and can live well over 100 years. (Gillian Massie/980 CJME)

She said a lot of people who come to the festival want to work with animals in the future. She hopes the festival can spark that inspiration.

“I love being able to interact with the public and maybe teach them something they didn’t know, and have them be able to keep that knowledge going forward,” DenHertog said.

Wil DenHertog was a barista before being introduced to the Wildlife Festival crew. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Dizzy and Dory the sloths

A fan favourite of the festival are the sloths — it has four sloths in total.

Dizzy and Dory are Linnaeus’s two-toed sloths.

Their handler Kira Romano hopes to educate people about the “misunderstood animal.”

“People typically would be like, ‘They move super slow,’ but in reality, they’re actually pretty fast when they want to be fast,” she said. “But they do want to savour their energy a lot.”

Kira Romano and Dizzy the sloth. She got into the job through her love for animals and going to animal summer camps as a child. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)

Romano said sloths can move great distances, and it takes them a long time because they have naps in between.

They sleep for 15-20 hours of the day.

According to Romano, sloths can hold their breath for 40 minutes, are incredible swimmers and only go to the bathroom once a week because it takes a whole month for food digestion.

She loves working with the sloths because of their personalities. She said Dizzy is “an angel,” who loves kids and people.

“I love working with them, learning so many more things about them and also teaching people about them because they’re also really misunderstood animals,” she said.

Romano said some people love sloths so much, the experience of meeting one makes them cry happy tears.

Sunday is the last day for the festival, which runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the REAL District.