The Geological Museum building of the Natural History Museum of Denmark on Øster Voldgade, Copenhagen

Natural History Museum of DenmarkIndre By

Wild Wonderful World

Ended28 June 2024 – 1 November 2026kr 115

This exhibition has ended.

Treasures from 400 years of collecting: from microscopic plankton and whale skeletons to stardust and gemstones, with the stories of the expeditions behind them.

Museum website

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On now All of November 2026

In the second room, three cases sit side by side: a meteorite six-year-old Melina found in her Glostrup schoolyard in 2016, a great auk, and Greenland plants a schoolteacher gathered in their spare time. Uniavisen's reviewer read them as the three reasons anyone collects nature: curiosity, profit and a hobby.

From there you zigzag through the storerooms: polar bear skulls, amber holding insects no one had described, a computer-built dodo. Two students set an exam to collect 100 plants skipped Frederiksberg's gardens, asked Queen Ingrid instead, and came back from Gråsten with 467. Read the labels. The last room is a workshop where you finally get to touch bones, furs and stuffed animals.

The one complaint: Icelandic anthropologist Gísli Pálsson told Information the show is impressive, but the great auk room's portrait naming sailor Ketill Ketilsson as one of its killers is misleading. Go soon, as the whole Øster Voldgade building closes after 1 November. Tickets are 115 DKK (50 DKK under 18), and Wednesdays run to 21:00.

Look for

Melina's meteorite
The black stone a six-year-old picked up in her Glostrup schoolyard in 2016, shown with the TV2 Lorry news clip of her find.
The polar bear skulls
A case from a collection of nearly 700 skulls gathered over 200 years, which recently showed East Greenland males losing bone mass.
The dodo
A full model of the bird rebuilt by computer from preserved skulls and old drawings, and the museum director's favourite object in the show.
Queen Ingrid's herbarium
A wooden case of pressed flowers from the 467 plants two students collected in the Queen's garden at Gråsten in 1995.
Museum Wormianum
Rosamond Purcell's installation rebuilds Ole Worm's 1600s cabinet of curiosities, where the museum's collection began, as a room you can stand in.

Good for

Evening Visits
Nerding Out
Small Kids

Skip if

You want one clear storyline: Uniavisen's reviewer found it zigzags between geology, zoology and botany.

With kids

Under-18s pay 50 DKK. The last room is a workshop where kids handle bones, furs and stuffed animals and use microscopes with museum hosts; Børn i Byen's reviewer went with a 4- and a 6-year-old.