Canadian Museum of Nature

January was a strong start to my new year's resolutions; a week after visiting the art gallery, I went to the Canadian Museum of Nature with John and his little brother.

my favourite 7 year-old

Can you believe Jaden is only seven?  He is almost as tall as me!  John is bracing himself for the eventual day when he'll be the shorter one of the pair.


We started off in the dinosaur exhibit which was an immediate crowd pleaser.

In addition to the giant skeletons, they also had life-like recreations.  We had a lot of fun pretending Jaden was being eaten alive (although I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such a happy victim.)

In the animal exhibits, I was thoroughly impressed with the attention to detail in each display.  The animals were all taxidermied which I think was the main reason behind the realism, but I really appreciated the noticeable effort that went into the arrangements (see below for rabbit poop).

arctic fox

polar bear display

so much poop

moose is very Canadian eh?

this adorable animal is called a 'pika' !!
I need to throw a pokeball at it

tiny birdie

I printed off some of the photos as a souvenir for Jaden and tried my best to create a good mix of educational flashcard-style captions and funny speech bubbles.  He really liked the giant blue whale skeleton and was amazed at the live tarantulas, so I made sure to include both in the set.

The museum was definitely a great place for little kids to get excited about sciences; they had lots of interactive displays and toys to play with.  In the rocks and minerals exhibit, they had numerous simulation stations where you can play with knobs and levers to make your own minerals.

We were a bit short on time but still managed to finished up in the bird exhibit.  Jaden recently learned how to whistle so we were having fun practicing our bird calls and confusing other patrons.

chickadee

I don't have too much experience shooting animals so it was good to practice with ones that stay still!
Thanks for reading!