Welcome to the Durrell Paradise
As a new series of The Durrells returns to TV this Spring, Yours writer Katharine Wootton visited Jersey’s Durrell Wildlife Park to see first hand the amazing work being done to save rare animal species
Waking up in the heart of the Durrell Wildlife Park in Jersey, it feels like the spirit of Gerald Durrell, the conservationist and author who founded this Park and whose books inspired the TV hit, The Durrells, is everywhere. As I watch silverback gorilla toddlers tumbling around, endangered fruit bats circling above my head and one of the world’s rarest tortoises tucking into breakfast, all to the tune of a lemur’s morning sing-song, it’s clear that Gerald’s mission of providing a sanctuary for the planet’s most endangered species is still working, nearly 60 years after he first set this place up. Growing up in Corfu, animal-mad Gerry, who we see as a young boy in
the TV series, became an ambassador for all creatures great and small. So in 1959, when he decided to set up a wildlife park and conservation trust in the Channel Islands, initially called Jersey Zoo, he wanted it to provide a safe place for species that were facing extinction as well as being an international training centre for other animal enthusiasts to learn how to save species in their own countries. Now, 22 years after Gerald passed away, a dedicated team of staff, all overseen by Gerry’s widow, Lee Durrell continue his dream of offering a Noah’s ark for the most vulnerable creatures in the animal kingdom. Lee, who still lives in the Manor House she used to share with her husband in the middle of the Wildlife Park, first met Gerry when he came to visit her university in North Carolina. “I’d read Gerry’s books while I was out in Madagascar doing my dissertation research and he’d become a great hero of mine. So when I heard he was visiting our university’s lemur facility, I couldn’t believe I was going to meet him,” she says as we share a coffee and slice of Corfu spanakopita in her front room that’s an Aladdin’s cave of animal-related trinkets she and Gerry have accumulated throughout their life together. “When Gerry arrived at my Professor’s house, he walked through this archway in a powder blue suit with this silvery white hair and it was like a 1,000watt bulb had just lit up the room. He just had that kind of personality. “That night I drove him to dinner as I was the only one who knew the way, but we got hopelessly lost as we were so busy talking!” Smitten with this bright, young student, Gerry quickly hatched a plan to get Lee over to Jersey. “He called me up later to say he’d been left a legacy by an old lady and wanted to use this money to set up a sound recording lab to capture the calls of species. Animal vocalisation was my field so he asked me if I’d come and help him set this up. It was all a total fabrication, but of course I fell for it hook, line and sinker,” laughs Lee. “When I got to Jersey airport in the winter of 1978 Gerry drove me to the zoo and let me in through the front gates, which I later learned are normally only opened when the Princess Royal, our patron, visits. I was very impressed!” Before Lee reached the end of her stay in Jersey, Gerry asked her to marry him. She accepted and from then on, Gerry often joked that he was the only man in the world to be married for his zoo. And that zoo became a fundamental part of their marriage. “Gerry and I always talked about animals and conservation at home, over the dinner table and such. For our tenth wedding
The Durrell Conservation Academy has trained more than 5,000 people from 137 countries in conservation skills. These graduates are nicknamed ‘Durrell’s Army’
anniversary, he even bought me four tarantulas which I loved and kept in a tank in my office. Our cleaner, however, was less keen, especially when one escaped one day while we were on holiday!” Away from home, Lee and Gerry travelled the world throughout the Eighties and Nineties, writing books and making TV documentaries about their quest to save species nearing extinction, including the Mauritius pink pigeon, of which there were just 16 birds known to exist in 1980 – there are now hundreds, thanks to their efforts, including a couple residing at the Durrell Wildlife Park. But it was in Madagascar where the couple set upon their biggest challenge yet – and one which still continues today. The Ploughshare Tortoise (left), only found in Madagascar, has long been in worrying decline as populations are poached for their beautiful, intricatelydesigned shell that’s in huge demand on the black market. Gerry, Lee and the Durrell team have fought tirelessly to save these gorgeous creatures by running community education schemes and trying to deter poachers. And while they’ve had some success over the years, it remains an ongoing battle. The handful of Ploughshares we get to steal a glimpse of at the Durrell Wildlife Park today, like so many of the animals here, are an insurance population that may one day be called upon to breed if the species continues to head towards extinction. Like all the animals here, the keepers try to recreate as closely as possible the natural environment these Ploughshare Tortoises would be used to in their native homeland, offering them the chance to behave as they would do in the wild.