The main body could be pretty easily done as a Nurbs surface extruded using bevel plus. The neck being long and straight is probably best suited to poly modeling. The head could go either way, my preference would be extruded polys.

If you haven't checked out bevel plus (a new NURBS function) your really missing out. Also, Mayas ability to stitch multiply NURBS surface together while coverting to polys is also very cool.