We extend our hand. A traveling pie, a sort of migrating pigeon, comes to rest on it. Then a Steller's Rhytine, a whale that looks like an elephant seal, starts swimming and walks away across the room. A little further on, it's a large saber-toothed tiger, perched on a stone, yawning. Have you never heard of these animals? Normal, they are all gone. “Revivre”, the new augmented reality route offered from Wednesday by the National Museum of Natural History, brings these species back to life which no longer exist today. It is new and stunning. And it's free with the purchase of a Grand Gallery of Evolution ticket until July 7.
Direction the room where 345 specimens are presented, in the Great Gallery of Evolution.
As soon as you enter, in small groups of no more than five people, you put on a helmet equipped with a pair of special glasses.
The journey begins.
Eleven species have been reconstructed by the Muséum teams and the Saola studio.
We see them evolve, come back to life before our eyes.
Animals that have disappeared, most of the time through human fault.
“None of us have seen them, there are no“ taxidermized ”specimens, emphasizes Bruno David, President of the Museum.
The idea is to touch the sensitivity of the visitor, to take the measure of what we have lost and that we will never see again, neither in nature, nor in captivity.
And only technology allows that.
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A true-to-life reconstruction
The creative team undertook a meticulous work of reconstruction.
“It was quite a challenge, admits Jérémy Frey, director of the Saola studio.
We went through the scientific articles, spent time in the museum's library and talked to specialists to get the details of a feather or a hair and thus be able to recreate it in 3D.
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Over the course of the experience, which lasts about fifteen minutes, we learn how these animals lived and how they disappeared.
The traveler pie, for example?
“There were several billion in the 19th century in North America,” explains the president of the Museum.
The last specimen died at the Cincinnati Zoo (United States) in 1914. They were completely eradicated.
Hunters were even rewarded if they managed to kill more than 30,000 a day.
It was a massacre.
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“Revivre”
, at the National Museum of Natural History (Ve), from June 16. Free with the purchase of a Grand Gallery of Evolution ticket until July 7, then at 10 and 13 euros
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Open Wednesdays and weekends and every day during school holidays. From the age of 8