Past Matters

A pair of huia birds - The Horniman Museum & Gardens

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Episode notes

In this episode, host Ploy Radford talks to Jo Hatton, Keeper of the Natural History Collection at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in South London. She picked a pair of taxidermied huia birds from the collection as her underrated objects. What makes these sadly now extinct birds particularly remarkable is that they represent the most pronounced example of sexual dimorphism in bill shape of any bird species in the world. 

So keep listening to learn more about these fascinating creatures from Jo, as well as what they tell us about emerging interest in natural history in Victorian England.