This summer, The Manitoba Museum wants to tell you about the birds and the bees - and the moose, and the lobsters, and the ostriches, and the drumming wolf spiders, and the mandrills, and the deer...

Its newest exhibit, Fatal Attraction, offers a glimpse into the often-strange world of animal mating behaviour. Collaboratively produced by three museums in Belgium, France and the Netherlands, the massive exhibit - it takes up over 8,500 square feet and features over 100 animal and insect specimens - explores the various methods by which different species (including humans) communicate with each other and select sexual partners.

Given its European origins and its subject matter, it should come as no surprise that Fatal Attraction is slightly more risqué than traditional North American museum fare. Audiences are encouraged, for example, to compare the face of a male mandrill (a type of baboon native to West Africa) to his genitals - when he's excited, they turn an alluring combination of red, blue and yellow. Of course, if baboon genitalia isn't your thing, you can also watch a highly entertaining video of an ostrich courtship dance, listen to an assortment of bird calls, or learn about how female lobsters let males know they're interested (hint: it involves urination - who knew?).

"It's not your typical museum exhibit. It's fun, it's edgy, it's interactive - it's not just looking at stuff under glass, which is what people may expect when they think of a museum," says Holli Moncrieff, the museum's communications and public relations manager.

She's not kidding - to date, one of the more popular parts of the exhibit involves a giant replica of a snail which responds to hugging as it would in the natural world, by... well, you'll just have to hug it and find out for yourself.

Moncrieff says The Manitoba Museum, like most others across the continent, is trying to reach new audiences - particularly people in their 20s or 30s who may have been dragged out as children but haven't returned as adults.

Bringing in cheeky exhibits such as Fatal Attraction is one way to achieve that goal; investing in innovative marketing strategies is another. A new website (www.thenaughtysnail.com) lets people upload pictures of themselves in carnal embrace with the aforementioned giant snail, while museum staff are planning to hand out temporary tattoos during July's Fringe Festival.

Operating hours have also changed slightly in the hopes of luring those with full-time day jobs. The museum will now be open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays and, as Moncrieff points out, an exhibit entirely devoted to sexual attraction makes for a great date.

"This isn't the same place you used to go to on school tours," she says. "We do do original, unique, hip things... I think people picture museums as being stodgy grandfather territory, but not at all."

Fatal Attraction runs until September. Tickets are $8 for adults ($6.50 for youth, students and seniors) and if you combine the exhibit with admission to any of the museum's other displays, you'll get a discounted price.

Just watch out for that naughty snail...