FERGUS — A local woman is using her travelling parrot and exotic animal show to promote rainforest conservation across Wellington County.
Nicole Simmie, also known as Nicole Wild, created her travelling parrot and animal entertainment show, Wings Over the Rainforest over a decade ago but said the business really started picking up in the last year and a half when she moved to the Centre Wellington area.
A lifelong animal lover, Simmie said she's always been passionate about animal intelligence, specifically in parrots, and was inspired to create Wings Over the Rainforest as a way to give parrots already living in captivity an enriched life through training while allowing them to live socially in and around other birds.
"Parrots are really intelligent- they have the intelligence of a three-to-five-year-old child so you're dealing with a toddler," said Simmie. "I felt like the birds needed to shine, they needed to do something to enrich their brains and they love attention so teaching them tricks is a great form of engagement and enrichment for them ...so I thought why not show them off?"
Wings Over the Rainforest is the name of Simmie's foundation show, which features five or six parrots performing tricks like basketball, roller skating, talking, playing dead and even moonwalking to Michael Jackson.
Started last summer, the newest show is called Wild Animal Kingdom and stars exotic mammals and reptiles including a Parson's chameleon, an African Sulcata Tortoise, Patagonia maras and a sugar glider.
Simmie's animals are also available for animal therapy and film and TV projects.
"One bird can fly a rose to us, she can tell you what water is, she knows some colour, she knows how to tell you her name, she's an incredibly talented African Grey Parrot," said Simmie.
According to Simmie, most parrots love learning and performing and she uses positive reinforcement methods like treats when training them.
Some birds are nervous and take time before they recognize a trick is safe, others are "workaholics" and would rather perform than "go to school."
"We have two birds that I say are like Madonna or Michael Jackson because they just want to learn everything and they seem to want to go to Vegas or something," said Simmie. "We try our best to teach them (the birds) based on their skill sets and passions. If a bird loves talking, we'll let her go to town. If we have a bird that loves flying, we'll focus on flight tricks."
When not performing, the animals live with Simmie in her rainforest-themed home where they have access to an outdoor aviary and can go outside, sit in the sun and fly around in a netted area safe from predators.
Simmie also takes her birds on field trips to the beach, stores and other areas to acclimate them to people and the concrete jungle.
"When people come and visit, they say it's really tropical just with the reptiles and the birds. It's pretty cool," said Simmie. "I'm not there yet but I'd love to eventually have something like a mini bird kingdom."
The goal of Simmie's shows is entertainment and education, specifically about the challenges of keeping parrots in captivity and the need to preserve the natural world.
In the long term, Simmie said she'd like to donate a portion of the show sales to protect the South American rainforest, create a large-scale conservation show and connect with an organization working to preserve the lands where her birds are from.
"I really think that in the next 10 years, zoos are going to be gone ... I think we're going to move towards live animal shows and performances where animals are showcasing some of their natural behaviours," said Simmie. "The biggest benefit is they're up close and personal and you're getting to see how intelligent the parrots are and how much they can do."
You can watch Simmie and her parrots do their thing at Dreamland Pet in Elora on March 23 and April 13. She will also be performing on March 10 at the Wellington County Library branches in Elora and Mount Forest for their March Break programming. More information is available on her website.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.