Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, writer, and conservationist who founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo. He spent his childhood in India and Greece, where he developed a fascination with animals. Durrell undertook many animal collecting expeditions, focusing on collecting threatened and endangered species. He revolutionized the way zoos think about their collections and established numerous branch conservation centers around the world. Durrell’s books are popular and diverse, including autobiographical, travel, children’s, and technical books, along with short stories and several humorous novels.
Gerald Durrell, born in Jamshedpur, India, in 1925, was a British naturalist, conservationist, writer and educator. In 1958 he founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the island of Jersey, but he is perhaps best loved for his extensive series of books on animals, collecting expeditions and zoo keeping. Gerald Durrell is the brother of noted novelist Lawrence Durrell. He died in 1995 of post-surgical complications related to a liver transplant.
Gerald Durrell spent his childhood in India in the care of a nanny. He was the fourth and youngest of the Durrell children. In 1928, after his father’s death, the rest of the family moved back to Britain, where he lived until 1935, when he moved to the island of Corfu in Greece. Gerald Durrell traced the beginnings of his lifelong fascination and love of animals to his time in Greece, where he collected and learned about everything that walked, swam, crawled, or flew.
When war broke out, the family moved back to Britain, leaving Lawrence. Initially Gerald Durrell had a lot of trouble finding work in London, because he was homeschooled and had no practical experience. He was exempt from military service for health reasons and during the war he worked on a farm.
In 1945, Gerald Durrell took a position as zookeeper at Whipsnade Zoo while applying for positions on wildlife collecting expeditions. Due to his lack of experience, he was turned down and financed his first harvesting expedition in 1947 independently. He traveled to Cameroon, collecting a variety of animals that were sold to zoos across Britain.
After that, Durrell undertook many animal collecting expeditions, always focusing on collecting threatened and endangered species so they could perhaps be rescued in captivity. Durrell was known to be a careful collector of specimens, making sure not to over-collect and trying to collect healthy specimens that would do well in captivity. He also fed his animals various high quality diets and tried to give them as natural a life as possible in captivity.
In 1951, Gerald Durrell married Jacqueline Sonie Wolfenden, who along with her brother Lawrence encouraged him to start writing about his experiences. Beginning with The Overloaded Ark (1953), Gerald Durrell wrote a large number of books about his animal-collecting adventures and later about his zoo. Using his book sales, he financed multiple expeditions and used funds from The Overloaded Ark to travel to Paraguay, where he had a coup and was forced to release his entire collection.
In 1956, Durrell grew frustrated with the way zoos were run and traveled to Cameroon again to collect animals which he intended to make the nucleus of his zoo. Upon his return, he struggled to find a site and was eventually offered Les Augres Manor in Jersey. He began setting it up as a zoo, traveling to South America to collect more animals, and the Jersey Zoo opened to the public in 1958. In 1963, Durrell founded the Wildlife Preservation Trust, with the goal of raising funds for conservation.
Gerald Durrell had many ideas about zoo husbandry that were considered radical at the time and revolutionized the animal husbandry industry. He believed that zoos, first and foremost, had a responsibility to preserve endangered species through captive breeding. Zoos should not keep common species that were safe in the wild and should not be established solely for entertainment. To that end, in 1978, Durrell established a conservation education center in his zoo, attracting students from around the world. The training center has strived to provide struggling nations with a strong body of conservationists who could establish zoos and captive breeding programs to preserve their dwindling natural assets.
Gerald Durrell made a huge contribution to the 20th century conservation movement, establishing numerous branch conservation centers around the world, collecting and rescuing numerous endangered species, and revolutionizing the way zoos think about their collections. He has also established and helped found a number of wildlife conservation consortia around the world, launching public appeals that have been widely received. His books are very popular and he has written a large and diverse collection of autobiographical, travel, children’s and technical books, along with short stories and several humorous novels.
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