If you're looking to chill this summer, you can learn about the animals of the ice age era and bring them to life with only your phone.
Thanks to the Canadian Museum of Nature there's a new app that lets you hang out and take photos with ice age creatures both extinct and still living. You can bring a woolly mammoth to Parliament Hill, spot giant cats in your backyard or have muskox on your office desk.
The free app is live now until the end of the summer and it corresponds with a new exhibit at the Ottawa museum, Planet Ice: Mysteries of the Ice Ages.
Sabre toothed cat from the ice age in downtown Ottawa. Canadian Museum of Nature
Once you download the app you can choose between six majestic creatures, positioning them, adjusting their size and adding special effects if you choose, like different environments and weather.
Your animal of choice, mammoth, muskox, wolf, caribou, short-faced bear or smilodon (a sabre-toothed cat), will appear in front of you. Tap it for it to move and roar (or trumpet or bellow). You can have them wandering through snow or Northern Lights while taking unique photos through the app, placing family and friends in these wild environments. There are four environment settings and four different weather effects to choose from.
You can also learn some interesting facts about each animal, in both English and French. The museum is hosting an Instagram contest where you can post your pics for a chance to win prizes.
You can see life-sized displays and artifacts while learning even more about these ice age animals this summer at the museum. The exhibit is on until January 2023 * and outlines the power of ice and how important it is for our survival.
Planet Ice AR
Price: Free
When: Now until January 8, 2023 *
Address: Anywhere in Canada by downloading the app
Why You Need To Go: You can learn about the ice age while bringing historic creatures to life through your phone.
*This article has been updated.