Have you visited the Natuurmuseum Brabant yet? Tilburg is filled with gems and sights to see, so if you ever find yourself in the city, why not visit some of its museums?
One of our favourites is the Natuurmuseum Brabant, a favourite for all fans of nature. So get your family and kids, and embark on a journey into the natural world and its history.
What is the Natuurmuseum Brabant in Tilburg all about?
Natuurmuseum Brabant has been around since 1935 and aims to encourage people to appreciate and learn about nature. The museum showcases a variety of different exhibitions which have been bringing visitors back to the museum for many years. It’s also the perfect place for children and the whole family, young and old.
Natuurmuseum Brabant is first and foremost a family-friendly museum about the lives of plants and animals, and it does a great job of explaining the awesome history of nature to you and your little ones to gain a better understanding of the natural world around us.
What does that come down to? Observe wolves in the Real Wolf exhibition or become a detective in the OO – ZONE, where you will find over 2000 objects in an accessible museum depot. For the youngest visitors, there are the exhibitions BOS and Frog & Friends where they can visit Frog’s house and play a variety of games. The youngsters can also ‘hunt’ a virtual woolly mammoth and learn about hunting tactics. Afterwards, they can rest in a skin tent and relax around a makeshift ‘homemade’ fire.
What do you really need to see at Natuurmuseum Brabant in Tilburg?
Two exhibits at the nature museum are not to be missed and would draw millions of visitors if this excellent museum was located in Amsterdam.
First, and you can’t miss it, is the giant whale skeleton. This skeleton (15 meters long, 1000 kilos heavy) comes from one of the three sperm whales which washed ashore in Scheveningen in 1995. The size is mindboggling for young and old!
The other one is equally gigantic:
Behold this life-size model of the woolly mammoth, at least three-and-a-half meters high and six meters long. The designers who made the model put the mammoth together on the spot because of its epic size. The woolly mammoth is one of the most famous ice-age animals and the best known of all mammals from the Pleistocene.
The Ice Age exhibit of the Natuurmuseum Brabant in Tilburg is surely worth a visit
Besides the model of the woolly mammoth, the Ice Age exhibit contains a lot of interesting artefacts of this bygone age. You can find a sabre-toothed tiger, cave lions, wolves, and other fossilized animals.
One of the showcases is a Neantherdal called Noezal, whom you can visit in his cave. Neantherdals used to be seen as little more than monkeys, but discoveries have revealed that this genetic cousin of ours was much more similar to us than initially thought, and this exhibit demonstrates exactly that. You can take a look at Noezal’s toolbox to see what he was using to survive in the wild, as well as his eating menu. It wasn’t a Michelin restaurant, but it was fair work.
Learn more about dinosaurs at the “early birds, those dinos” exhibition in the Natuurmuseum Brabant
Do you sometimes look at a chicken walking only to be struck by the fact that you are looking at this dumbed-down version of a Tyrannosaurus Rex? Well then, this exhibition is just for you.
The exhibit is about the family of theropods and how they slowly, over millions of years, evolved into birds. You’ll see skeletons and eggs, and there are plenty of assignments to do as well. This exhibit is well-suited for children, and there are assignments for youngsters aged four to seven, as well as children over eight years old. This is also the first exhibit of the museum which is entirely bilingual, with English provided, so go give it a look!
Not one for indoors? Check out a nature site in Tilburg!
Perhaps you want to experience some outdoor nature, rather than visiting a nature museum. Tilburg has plenty of these awesome nature sites to offer, so here’s a great example for all of you nature aficionados.
“Wandelbos”
Wandelbos is a picturesque forest, located halfway between Tilburg and Reeshof. You can go biking there, or just for a lovely stroll through the many hiking paths. There are many places to lay out a gezellige picnic with your friends, and in general, it’s an ideal location to go with your family and with children.
For the little ones, there’s even a petting zoo, so go out there with your loved ones and pet some animals!
For more places all nature-related in Tilburg, check out our article on the nature in Tilburg.
Or check out our friends at Ticket to Tilburg for more of those inspiring nature tips!
Have you already been to the Natuurmuseum Brabant in Tilburg? What was your favorite exhibit? Let us know in the comments.
Feature Image: Jou Brabant, Mijn Brabant/Natuurmuseum Tilburg