Summer hours have begun! The museum is open daily until September 2, 2024.
- 9:30 am – 5 pm, and Thursday until 8 pm.
- Reminder: FREE Thursday nights from 5 to 8 pm.
After September 3, 2024, the museum will be closed on Tuesdays until May 17, 2025. Visit nature.ca for more information.
SPECIAL ACTIVITIES – included with museum admission
OCEAN WEEK
- Critical Distance Augmented-Reality Experience
June 2 – 9 (on June 5, the last presentation will be at 1:30 pm.)
Critical Distance is an amazing augmented-reality (AR) experience that presents the story of Kiki, an eight-year-old orca, and her pod. Wearing a headset, you can dive into the Pacific Ocean’s Salish Sea virtually, and interact with a pod of Southern Resident orcas. Participants will witness the impact of aquatic noise pollution on the whales’ ability to hunt, communicate with one another and survive. Orca conservationists from British Columbia’s Gulf Islands will be on site to chat with visitors about the endangered Southern Resident orcas.
NOTE: each 10-minute AR experience is limited to eight participants and subject to availability. To reserve a spot, pick up a time card in the Stone Wall Gallery from 9:45 am to 3 pm. First-come, first-served.
There will be a break from 12 pm to 1 pm.
Presentations run daily from 10 am to 11:45 am and from 1:15 pm to 4:30 pm, and on Thursdays until 7:30 pm.
This AR experience was created by Vision3 together with Microsoft.
Its public installation at the museum during Ocean Week Canada 2024 is supported by the Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition Blue Creators Grant.
- Ocean Day Educational Drop-in
June 8, 9:30 am – noon, and 1:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Water Gallery
Celebrate Ocean Day with us. Come observe our live sea creatures in our Pacific Discovery Tank, discover how we conserve deep ocean and freshwater biodiversity from around the globe, and meet a group of researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature, the American Fisheries Society – Ontario Chapter, Carleton University, and the University of Toronto who are working together on protecting migratory fishes from the Ottawa River all the way to the Ocean.
SPECIAL EXHIBITION (special exhibition fee in addition to museum admission)
Until October 14, 2024
Experience the world as bugs do! This spectacular, dramatic and fantastical exhibition features immersive bug chambers, larger-than-life bugs, and interactive surprises around every corner. The amazing superpowers of bugs are revealed —from fast flight to powerful exoskeletons, camouflage, swarms and more. Visitors can also discover how these tiny wonders are inspiring human innovation. Bug Adventure was developed and presented by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, working with Weta Workshop (the design team involved in Avatar and The Lord of the Rings).
SUMMER PROGRAMMING
Daily as of June 22, 10 am – noon and 1 pm – 4pm; Thursdays until 8 pm.
- Bug Adventure – Chat with an interpreter and learn about the amazing world of bugs.
- Pacific Discovery Tank - Chat with an interpreter and learn about the creatures that call tidepools home. Encounter live sea stars, sea cucumbers, tentacled anemones and spiky urchins.
MOVIE (included with museum admission)
Dino Dana: The Movie
Until September 2, 2024
From multiple Emmy award-winning Sinking Ship Entertainment comes an action-packed dinosaur adventure aimed at kids and their families. Based on the popular TV series, Dino Dana: The Movie follows 10-year-old paleontologist-in-training Dana as she imagines dinosaurs into the real world to solve her dinosaur experiments.
Duration: 25 minutes.
English screenings (regular schedule): Hourly from 10 am to 3 pm, and until 7 pm on Thursdays (subject to change without notice).
French screenings are on the half hour.
NATURE NOCTURNE
Tickets are on sale for Nature Nocturne—Ottawa most memorable night out for adults! Different themes for each event. The June 28 event is sold out. Tickets are still available for the events on Nov. 1 – Rebirth, and Feb. 14 – Après-Ski.
OTHER EXHIBITIONS (included with museum admission)
Wolves! Shapeshifters in a Changing World
Until September 2, 2024
Learn about wolf evolution and adaptations through specimens, cultural stories, video and scientific research that highlights studies by museum experts Kamal Khidas, Ph.D., and Danielle Fraser, Ph.D. Eleven stunning, large images by the renowned wildlife and landscape photographer, Michelle Valberg, feature wolves from the Pacific coast and Yellowstone National Park.
Bugs Alive
Leafcutter ants—busy little farmers that work around the clock—are the star attraction in our renewed and permanent exhibition of live insects and arachnids. Tarantulas, Horrid king assassin bugs, millipedes, cockroaches, and death-feigning beetles are also some of the other fascinating species you can examine up close.
GENERAL INFORMATION:
TICKETS: Advance tickets are recommended, and are for a specified entry time. Book now.
The Canadian Museum of Nature is located at 240 McLeod St, Ottawa. Visit nature.ca. Follow the museum on X (twitter.com/museumofnature) and Instagram (museumofnature), and Like us on Facebook. Tel: 613-566-4700.
