55 Facts About Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durrell founded the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Jersey Zoo on the Channel Island of Jersey in 1959.

Gerald Durrell wrote approximately forty books, mainly about his life as an animal collector and enthusiast, the most famous being My Family and Other Animals.

Gerald Durrell was the youngest brother of novelist Lawrence Durrell.

Gerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, British India, on 7 January 1925.

Gerald Durrell was the fifth and youngest child of Louisa Florence Dixie and Lawrence Samuel Durrell, both of whom were born in India of English and Irish descent.

Gerald Durrell's father was a British engineer and, as was commonplace for a family of their status, the infant Gerald Durrell spent most of his time in the company of an ayah.

Gerald Durrell reportedly recalled his first visit to a zoo in India and attributed his lifelong love of animals to that encounter.

Gerald Durrell was enrolled in Wickwood School, but frequently stayed at home, feigning illness.

Louisa moved to the Greek island of Corfu in 1935 with Leslie, Margaret, and Gerald Durrell, joining her eldest son Lawrence who had arrived there with his wife Nancy about a week earlier.

Gerald Durrell was home-schooled during this time by various private tutors, mostly friends of his brother Lawrence.

Gerald Durrell became Durrell's greatest friend and mentor, his ideas leaving a lasting impression on the young naturalist.

Together, they examined Corfu's fauna, which Gerald Durrell housed in a variety of items including test tubes and bathtubs.

Gerald Durrell stated that both families had hoped that she and Durrell would marry one day, but any such prospect was disrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939.

Gerald Durrell left Whipsnade Zoo in May 1946 in order to join wildlife collecting expeditions, but was denied a place in the voyages due to his lack of experience.

Gerald Durrell followed this expedition with two others, accompanied by fellow Whipsnade zookeeper Ken Smith: a repeat trip to the British Cameroon in 1949, and a trip to British Guiana in 1950.

Gerald Durrell housed and fed his captives with the best supplies obtainable, not trapping animals having merely "show value" or those which would fetch high prices from collectors.

Further, he had a falling-out with George Cansdale, superintendent of the London Zoo, and Gerald Durrell was blackballed by the British zoo community and could not secure a job in most zoos.

Gerald Durrell eventually secured a job at the aquarium at Belle Vue Zoo in Manchester, where he remained for some time.

Gerald Durrell started writing humorous autobiographical accounts to raise money with encouragement and assistance from Jacquie and advice from his brother Lawrence.

Gerald Durrell did this initially because he and Jacquie were in need of money after their wedding and he had no source of income, and later he wrote in order to fund his expeditions and conservation efforts.

Gerald Durrell's first book The Overloaded Ark was a huge success, causing him to follow up with other such accounts.

Gerald Durrell's growing disillusionment with the way zoos of the time were run, and his belief that they should primarily act as reserves and regenerators of endangered species, made him contemplate founding his own zoo.

Gerald Durrell's animals were housed in her gardens and garage on a temporary basis, while Durrell sought prospective sites for a zoo.

Gerald Durrell founded the Jersey Zoological Park in 1959 to house his growing collection of animals.

Gerald Durrell leased the manor and set up his zoo on the redesigned manor grounds.

Gerald Durrell was instrumental in founding the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, on 6 July 1963 to cope with the increasingly difficult challenges of zoo, wildlife and habitat management.

Gerald Durrell's initiative caused the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society to start the World Conference on Breeding Endangered Species in Captivity as an Aid to their Survival in 1972 at Jersey, today one of the most prestigious conferences in the field.

Gerald Durrell visited Mauritius several times and coordinated large scale conservation efforts in Mauritius with conservationist Carl Jones, involving captive breeding programmes for native birds and reptiles, ecological recovery of Round Island, training local staff, and setting up local conservation facilities.

Jacquie Gerald Durrell separated from and then divorced Gerald Durrell in 1979, citing his increasing work pressure, associated alcoholism and mounting stress as causes.

Gerald Durrell met his second wife, Lee McGeorge Wilson, in 1977 when he lectured at Duke University, where she was studying for a PhD in animal communication.

In 1978, a year after they first met, Gerald Durrell wrote a love letter to his future wife.

Gerald Durrell co-authored a number of books with him, including The Amateur Naturalist, and became the honorary director of the trust after his death.

In 1978, Gerald Durrell started the training centre for conservationists at the zoo, or the "mini-university" in his words.

Gerald Durrell was instrumental in forming the Captive Breeding Specialist Group of the World Conservation Union in 1982.

Gerald Durrell founded Wildlife Preservation Trust Canada, now Wildlife Preservation Canada, in 1985.

Around this time Gerald Durrell developed a friendship with Charles Rycroft, who became an important donor of funds both for building works in Jersey and for conservation work in East Africa, Madagascar and elsewhere.

Gerald Durrell visited Madagascar in 1990 to start captive breeding of a number of endemic species like the aye-aye.

Gerald Durrell chose the dodo, the flightless bird of Mauritius that was hunted to extinction in the 17th century, as the logo for both the Jersey Zoo and the trust.

On 26 February 1951, Gerald Durrell married Manchester resident Jacqueline Sonia Wolfenden after a lengthy courtship; they eloped when she was 21, because of opposition from her father.

Gerald Durrell authored two humorous, best-selling memoirs on the lines of Durrell's books in order to raise money for conservation efforts.

In 1979, Gerald Durrell married American Lee McGeorge Wilson, who met him when he gave a lecture at Duke University in North Carolina in 1977, where she was a doctoral student.

Gerald Durrell underwent hip-replacement surgery in a bid to counter arthritis, and he suffered from alcohol-related liver problems.

Gerald Durrell's health deteriorated rapidly after the 1990 Madagascar trip.

Gerald Durrell had a liver transplant in King's College Hospital on 28 March 1994, and he died of septicaemia on 30 January 1995, shortly after his 70th birthday in Jersey General Hospital.

Gerald Durrell's ashes are buried in Jersey Zoo, under a memorial plaque bearing a quote by William Beebe:.

Gerald Durrell's books have a very loose style which pokes fun at himself as well as those around him.

Gerald Durrell always insisted that he wrote for royalties to help the cause of environmental stewardship, not out of an inherent love for writing.

Gerald Durrell describes himself as a writer in comparison to his brother:.

Gerald Durrell was a regular contributor to magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, including Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, and the Sunday Times Supplement.

Gerald Durrell was a regular book reviewer for The New York Times.

Gerald Durrell's works have been translated into 31 languages and made into TV serials and feature films.

Gerald Durrell has large followings in Northern and Eastern Europe, Russia, Israel, and various Commonwealth countries, including India.

Gerald Durrell was a talented artist and caricaturist, but worked with numerous illustrators over the years, starting with Sabine Baur for The Overloaded Ark.

Gerald Durrell wrote a number of lavishly illustrated children's books in his later years.

Gerald Durrell has one entry in the 8th Edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.