Ode to a Dodo

Now here’s a sad story
That you all should hear
About a funny old bird
Who had never known fear

Till explorers landed
Upon the isle of Mauritius
And the creatures they brought
Found this Dodo delicious

Too docile to fight
Too flightless to flee
Now a head and a foot
Are all you can see

There’s a rather nice article on the Guardian website today all about our famous Dodo remains. Journalist Henry Nicholls interviewed our zoological collections manager Malgosia Novak-Kemp, who showed Henry the only known surviving soft tissue remains from the extinct Dodo.

The article includes a reference to Hilaire Belloc’s poem, so it seemed appropriate to share this little Ode to a Dodo with you. We wrote it as part of our Goes to Town trail, which is launching in Oxford next week.

You can watch a short trailer about this at goestotown.com, but suffice to say that the Dodo will feature, along with his Ode, in one of our partner venues. See if you can find him and all the other exhibits from Tuesday next week.

Scott Billings, Communications coordinator