Kids can meet a 42,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth named Lyuba (means “love” in Russian) at the Australian Museum this summer with the NEW exhibition Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age! This is the first time the world’s most intact mammoth has travelled to the Southern Hemisphere from Siberia. Rule out myths, learn new facts and get up close to this unique baby mammoth and get hands-on too!
These amazing creatures never lived on our continent so this may be the only chance for your little ones and yourself to learn more about these wooly animals. Experience the iconic age of mammoths, their habitats and hunters from 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago.
Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age features more than 100 rare fossils and specimens from around the world, including skulls, cave drawings, ivory carvings, Paleolithic jewellery and sharp-tipped spear points used by hunters to stalk their giant prey.
Children and families get stepped through the important family tree of these creatures, their habitat and the herds that hunt them. Visitos can walk through the landscapes where mammoths and mastodons (their smaller, stockier cousins) lived and see their struggles to raise their families.
Did you know that mammoths are not the ancestors of elephants - neither animal is the ancestor of the other. Instead mammoths and elephants are close relatives and belong to the same family - Elephantidae! This family branch is split into 3 groups: the ancestors of today's African elephants, the ancestors of today's Asian elephants and the earliest mammoths. I didn't know either until we visited!
Kids can get really hands-on at this exhibition with 10 different interactive stations which is fantastic! There were numerous opportunities for children to touch replica mammoth tusks, touch giant teeth and feel mammoth fur as well as play some cool games using mammoth's tusks, lift the weight of mammoth's food, play guessing game with species and more! We were invited to experience this exhibition and loved it, the kids touched everything and anything in the exhibition very hands-on!
We were fascinated by the beauty of the baby woolly mammoth and how she was found and preserved! She was discovered in 2007 in Siberia and it is estimated that she was one month old at the time of her death and she laid in Siberian soil for 42,000 years! You can find out more interesting facts on your visit!
You can also come to face-to-face and have your photo taken with a life-size mammoth as well as a sabre-toothed cat, giant short-faced bear and dire wolf! My little one was very impressed by these creatures and said 'wow' a couple of times as we walked past.
In addition to interactive learning games for kids, there are numerous videos throughout the exhibition which are very interesting to watch. The narrator of the video is really engaging and Miss 5 watched a couple of videos from start to finish!
This interactive exhibition also investigates the roles of climate change and humans in the eventual extinction of mammoths and asks whether it is possible to clone them today.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age and highly recommend a visit with your little Ice Age fans!
Busy City Kids were invited by the Australian Museum for the purposes of a review for Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. We love the Australian Museum and we are members of this great museum. All opinions & feedback are genuine & truthful.