THE MAGIC OF GERALD DURRELL

[Guest guest]

*Dear Dr Wedderburn and AAPN colleagues,*

*

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the animal

classic 'MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS' written by Gerald Durrell. Like many

millions all over the world I was enchanted by it during my schooldays and

many established naturalists have acknowledged their debt to Gerald Durrell

for inspiring them in their work. His work has also led to a reform in the

captive wild animal industry worldwide. I personally had an opportunity to

work in his zoo in Jersey for three months and it was doubtless an enriching

experience. I do not like the concept of keeping animals in captivity but

Jersey Zoo is among the very few zoos that have impressed me. I recently

learnt that they were supportive of the Indian Zoo Inquiry that has been

quite critical of the zoo concept. Gerald Durrell's work has been re

-evaluated by conservationists and biographers and today I would find Craig

Bennett's arguments to be very plausible. But if there is one person who has

advanced the cause of animal conservation/welfare/rights through writing in

modern times it is Gerald Durrell. I was privileged to write his obituary in

the Statesman newspaper in Kolkata and interact with his team. I feel it

might be appropriate to recapitulate his contribution to animal conservation

on this occasion by reading Sir David Attenborough's tribute to him entitled

'THE RENEGADE WHO WAS RIGHT'. This speech was given by Sir David at the

Natural History Museum in London. In another obituary published in the BBC

Wildlife Magazine, Sir David mentioned that when he first met Gerald Durrell

he thought the man was mad after he told him he wanted to have his own zoo.

He added that when Durrell died, he recollected his contribution to animal

conservation and thought that the world owed him a great deal. *

* For me, Gerald Durrell's books retain their charm and I would recommend

them to anyone interested in animals.*

* Best wishes,*

**

* Sincerely,*

* *

 

 

 

 

 

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1218436.ece

 

12 August 2006 11:39

Animal magic: The original environmentalist Sir David Attenborough called

him a 'one-man pressure group'. As Penguin celebrates the 50th anniversary

of 'My Family and Other Animals', Louise Jury looks at the story of Gerald

Durrell Published: 11 August 2006 It was a magical story of one child's love

of nature, with scorpions on the lunch table and snakes in the bath on the

idyllic island of Corfu. My Family and other Animals was a self-portrait

that propelled the grown-up Gerald Durrell - and the family he described -

to national fame. The book became a classic that sold more than a million

copies and has been never out of print.

 

*Now, 50 years after it was first published, the book is being presented

afresh with a new Puffin edition for children and a Penguin edition of the

trilogy Durrell wrote about his time on Corfu for adults.*

 

*Although the author died in 1995, his widow, Dr Lee Durrell, herself a

zoologist, hopes to introduce a new generation to his writings - and, more

importantly, to the conservation work he began on Jersey in 1959, where he

turned his youthful passion into a lifelong mission. *

 

*Well before the world at large had woken up to the dangers of environmental

degradation and the impact on the planet's bio-diversity, Durrell, a

self-taught zoologist with no academic qualifications, espoused the

conservation message. He founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

with the aim of preserving species at risk of dying out in the wild. It now

has 100 staff on Jersey and 30 more in 50 projects across 18 countries, in a

programme which costs £5m a year to run. *

 

* " The reason he actually started doing what he was doing was he saw that the

zoos were doing nothing for conservation and, perhaps, were even setting it

back, " Dr Durrell said. " Also, the youthful conservation movement of the day

just thought zoos were menageries and were of no value whatsoever to the

survival of species. But Gerry thought we had an opportunity to give animals

a breeding sanctuary. It was revolutionary and he was very much laughed at,

but he was proved right. " *

 

*The Jersey zoo - which has now abandoned the name zoo because of negative

connotations - not only preserves species by breeding them in captivity and

then reintroducing them to their original habitat, it also provides

professional training for generations of zoologists and conservationists. My

Family and Other Animals was, arguably, the start of major developments in

the field. " It was all born out of Gerry's vision from the very early days, "

Dr Durrell said. " That book and his subsequent books bred a whole generation

of zoologists. A lot of people in my business come up and say, 'The only

reason I do this is because I read your husband's books.' " *

 

*The couple met when Durrell gave a lecture in 1977 at the American

university where Lee, a southern belle from Tennessee 25 years his junior,

was finishing her PhD on the calls of mammals and birds of Madagascar.*

 

*Durrell's first marriage had recently ended, amid recriminations over his

drinking and heavy workload, and he immediately began wooing the much

younger woman, even creating a post especially on Jersey for her. " He was

not going to be put off, " she laughed. They were married in 1979 and she has

continued his work with the trust as honorary director since his death 11

years ago at the age of 70. *

 

* " He was a larger than life personality and we just had such a great time

together and that's what cements a relationship really - a common bond and a

passion about things, " she said.*

 

*Gerald Durrell was born in India in 1925 where, the apocryphal story goes,

his first word was " zoo " . The family returned to Britain upon the death of

his father, a civil engineer, then moved to Corfu in 1935, where the living

was cheap. *

 

*For the young nature-lover, the island was a paradise. " He described

arriving in Corfu as being like the moment when Dorothy stepped out of the

house in The Wizard of Oz and it was all Technicolor, " his widow said. " So

much was opened up to him. It was where he consolidated his fascination with

animals and plants and the sea and forests. " *

 

*Returning to England in 1939, Durrell spent the war years working in riding

stables, and then began a job at Whipsnade Zoo. Its success in breeding the

near-extinct Pere David's deer further stimulated his interest in

conservation. Inspired by an account of animal collecting in Africa in a

magazine, Durrell used a £3,000 inheritance to embark on a similar adventure

in 1946 - including hunting animals in a manner that was very much of the

time, although it now seems old-fashioned. *

 

*He supplied countless zoos with new species and began telling the stories

of his adventures in books such as The Overloaded Ark and Three Singles to

Adventure.*

 

*Then, on the back of his royalties, he borrowed the money to start his own

zoo in Jersey, including a major breeding programme. Its work has included

saving the Mauritius kestrel, which was down to only four birds before the

trust's efforts boosted numbers to 1,000. *

 

*On Madagascar, there are about 10 endangered species that are being bred in

captivity both on the island and back in Jersey as a survival insurance

policy. And the government of the island of Montserrat called the Durrell

Wildlife Trust in for support after a volcano devastated large parts of the

island and threatened the Montserrat oriole bird and the mountain chicken

which is, in fact, a frog. They are being bred on Jersey as a safety net in

case the native population fails to recover. *

 

*When Durrell died, his work prompted tributes from fellow naturalists and

conservationists. Sir David Attenborough hailed him as a " renegade who was

right " . Speaking at a memorial service at the Natural History Museum,

London, the BBC's most famous naturalist described Durrell as a one-man

pressure group years ahead of the anti-zoo lobby and the zoo community

alike. Durrell was, Sir David argued, a beacon to a generation of zoo

directors who were to be inspired by his belief that their institutions

could contribute to the preservation of wildlife. *

 

* " The extraordinary thing - which is perhaps the mark of genius - was that

everything he said, and, then, typically, did, seems now so obvious, so

logical, and so much a part of everyday conservation language, that we

easily forget how radical, revolutionary, and downright opinionated these

statements seemed at the time, " Sir David said. " He was truly a man before

his time, when the time was already upon us. " *

 

*But there are others in the environmental movement who have doubts about

the approach. Craig Bennett, a conservation expert with Friends of the

Earth, said the branch of conservation which stressed captured breeding of

animals was not black and white and provoked some debate. (Some of course

will have no truck with zoos at all.) *

 

*The danger was that Durrell's success in saving certain species through

captive breeding programmes was interpreted by some others as being

appropriate for species such as tigers and bears where it would not work.*

 

* " At the end of the day, the very best way of preserving species is to

maintain pristine areas of habitat and that is what we are very bad at

doing, " Mr Bennett said. " But you can't deny that there are some species

that now exist because of him. And I don't think anyone should take away the

great role he played with his books in really celebrating bio-diversity and

sharing how important it is. *

 

* " My Family and Other Animals is a fantastic book and everyone should read

it. It really articulates in a very clear and humorous way the wonderful

fascination and love that a small boy can have for wildlife and the natural

world. " *

 

*Dr Durrell said: " My Family and Other Animals has stood the test of time

and I hope that with a lot of fanfare about the 50th anniversary it will be

brought to people's minds a lot more. I hope that people will get their kids

to read it and the whole awareness of animals and their conservation needs

will be heightened. " *

 

*On Jersey itself, an initiative between Ottakar's bookshops and Penguin is

encouraging every teenager and adult on the island to read My Family and

Other Animals with a donation of £1 to Durrell Wildlife for each copy sold.

And the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust continues to be run according to

the principles he laid down in the early days. There have been improvements

to the physical environment for the animals, which were housed in enclosures

made from crates and chicken wire in the early days. These days, some, such

as monkeys, even run free. *

 

* " Our thinking has evolved in terms of animal husbandry, " Dr Durrell said.

" But the basic principles are still right there. " *

 

*She believes her late husband, " a humble, self-effacing person, " would be

overwhelmed at the new flurry of attention but would hope it would have a

positive outcome.*

 

* " Gerry, more than anybody else, got people to reconnect with animals

emotionally. I don't mean sentimentally, but he just somehow makes the

animals touch the inner core of the reader, " she said.*

 

* " You have to have that before people can really understand what's going on

in the world and the need to preserve our natural world. " *

 

*The need today was, if anything, even greater than it had ever been, she

said. " The situation is probably more alarming than when he started. " *

 

*Durrell's namesakes*

 

*Benthophilus Durrelli Durrell's Tadpole Goby*

 

*Gobies use a sucker to adhere to rocks and coral. This new species was

discovered in 2004.*

 

*Ceylonthelphusa Durrelli Durrell's Freshwater Crab*

 

*A critically rare new species of freshwater crab, found in Sri Lanka.*

 

*Kotchevnik Durrelli*

 

*From Russia, a new species of moth that is part of the superfamily

Cossoidea.*

 

*Nactus Serpeninsula Durrelli Durrell's Night Gecko*

 

*Discovered on the Round Island, an uninhabited islet 22.5km north of

Mauritius, this race of gecko was named after both Gerald and Lee Durrell

for their contribution to saving the gecko and Round Island fauna in

general. Mauritius released a stamp depicting the reptile. *

 

*Louise Jack*