Review: Natural History Museum’s Fantastic Beasts exhibition to explore how nature inspires myths and magic

We had only spent a couple of minutes at the Fantastic Beats: The Wonder of Nature exhibition press morning before I was back out by the entrance. With kids in tow, we were on the search for more paper to write on. We’d read a plaque about the discovery of a skull in the Middle Ages being linked to stories of a two-legged flying dragon in Austria – and we simply couldn’t go on without taking notes.

It had later been determined that the skull belonged to a long-extinct woolly rhinoceros, and this was just one of numerous inspiring stories about the close connection between myths and legends and the real world that families could delve into in the Fantastic Beats: The Wonder of Nature exhibition at Natural History Museum this summer, which has been created in partnership with Warner Bros, and the BBC.

With magical doors opening and closing, drawers to pull out, interactive games and atmospheric sounds, the family exhibition explains how magical and mythical creatures are often inspired by real-life animals, taking visitors on a unique journey to explore how stories through the ages may have originated, including some Harry Potter fan favourites.

After the woolly rhinoceros start, we learnt how discoveries of narwhal tusks could have led to people being convinced unicorns existed, and how manatees floating in the ocean and eerie whale sounds could have inspired tales about merpeople.

Moving on, it felt like we were at sea, as sounds of water and navy-painted walls set the scene for the section on sea monsters.

After admiring an adorable moon calf, we huddled together over an interactive display to discover the unusual sound made by a Mexican toad, and smiled in reminiscence of Harry Potter stories when spraying musk to attract an erumpent projected on a wall and tempting a niffler out with something shiny (see picture above).

Before finishing our morning tour, we explored the last section on conservation. Here, another exhibition highlight for young visitors is sure to be the poster making wall, where exhibition-goers can choose three, large tiles that can be temporarily stuck together on the wall to create a photo op poster, such as “Don’t Let Hornbills Become a Myth”.

Uniquely, I left thinking Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature has the potential to both inspire creativity in storytelling and writing, while also importantly, generating excitement and enthusiasm for protecting the fantastically weird and wonderful creatures of this world.

Tags: Fantastic Beasts, Natural History Museum, Review, Summer holiday