Zoo Tales Q&A: with Lee Durrell

To commemorate BIAZA Zoo Tales week, we asked Dr Lee Durrell, Honorary Director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, about wildlife, reading, zoos, and the work of her husband, Gerald Durrell. 

Why has communicating about the natural world been a lifelong passion for you?
I have known for a long time that the natural world is in trouble, ever since I was a graduate student in Madagascar 50 years ago, watching the degradation of habitat and decline of species.  The only way to begin to rectify the situation is to communicate about it, loud and clear.  When people understand that something is wrong, at least there is a starting point from which to fix it.

2025 will mark Gerald Durrell’s 100th birthday, and almost 70 years since My Family and other Animals was published. What do you note about his legacy, and how can we continue to keep it alive?
Among many aspects of Gerry’s legacy, I feel that one of the most important was his staunch belief that all species of animals are of value and worthy of conservation attention if they need it – not just the charismatic mega-vertebrates, but the ‘little brown jobs’ as well.  Although he didn’t use the word ‘biodiversity’, he was passionate about it.  The way to keep this legacy alive is to show respect and compassion for all living things.  Zoos have a big role to play in this by educating their visitors and participating in conservation action for each species they keep.

Which quotes or pearls of wisdom from Gerald Durrell’s work stand out to you?
About conservation organisations he often said “It is better to be small, but perfect.” 

One of the best-known quotes comes from his book Catch Me a Colobus, published more than 50 years ago.  He wrote, prophetically, “The world is as delicate and as complicated as a spider’s web.  If you touch one thread, you send shudders running through all the other threads.  We are not just touching the web, we are tearing great holes in it.” 

But on a more optimistic note, there is the letter he placed in a time capsule buried under the education building at Jersey Zoo in 1988.  It ends like this:

“We hope there will be fireflies and glow-worms at night to guide you and butterflies in hedges and forests to greet you.
We hope that your dawns will be filled with an orchestra of bird song to enchant you.
We hope there will still be extraordinary creatures sharing the planet with you to enrich your lives as they have done for us.
We hope you will be grateful for having been born into such a magical world.”

We’ll continue with some questions on your own literature - by and large, what was it like writing and co-writing so many books?
Actually, I didn’t do a lot of the writing per se – I left it to Gerry to produce what he called ‘the purple prose’, but I did the research and organized the structure for the many books we collaborated on.  The notable exception was my book The State of the Ark, published in 1986, which I researched, shaped and wrote.  Doing my PhD dissertation was considerably easier!

What are you most proud of from your bibliography?
It has to be The Amateur Naturalist, published in 1982 by Hamish Hamilton. Gerry and I had such a good time doing it, and it led to making a 13 part tv series, which took us all over the world.  It is still hugely popular.  I was recently giving a talk in Hungary, and the queues for book signings were very long, with nearly every person clutching a dog-eared copy of The Amateur Naturalist!

Of course, books aren’t the only way the ethos from Gerald Durrell’s work - and by extension the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust - has spread. Could you write about your work in conservation education?
I believe the greatest impact Gerry and the Trust have had in conservation education is through our training programme for aspiring conservationists from around the world.  What we now call Durrell Conservation Academy was a glimmer in Gerry’s eye as far back as the ‘60s, when Jersey Zoo was developing as a conservation breeding centre.  Gerry often said “Where rare animals should be bred is in their country of origin, but generally there is not enough local expertise. So I should like to turn my zoo into a kind of mini-university of conservation breeding.”  We have widened our remit since those days, and our Academy students learn about all aspects of conservation, from population genetics to habitat management, from nature connection to fundraising, as well as about breeding threatened species.  To date we have more than 6,000 graduates from more than two-thirds of the countries of the world.

As for conservation education in terms of what we want to impart to people, especially children, who visit Jersey Zoo, we have a fine Education Department (“small, but perfect”, as Gerry would say!) which in recent years has developed programmes and activities to get people better connected to nature, i.e., more emotionally attached to our animals as well as to the beautiful natural surroundings of the Zoo.  It is widely believed that the behavioural changes needed to save the planet are driven by emotion. 

What advice to you have for zoos with regards to educating and inspiring people about nature?
Do everything you can to get people to understand that there are strong bonds between themselves and other animals.  Your visitors should leave your zoo feeling those connections emotionally and reveling in the extraordinary beauty and diversity of the natural world.  Their zoo experience should result in their personal affirmation to care for nature with compassion. 

You have mentioned before that every species has a story to tell, how can we advise zoos to broadcast the crucial lesser-known species to the masses?
As Gerry believed, every species has a role to play and a right to exist.  Who are we to snuff out the life of a species, any species?  Thus zoos should exhibit and make a big deal of lesser- known species, in terms of their ecological role, zoological interest, aesthetic appeal and what is being done to save them.  And they should quote Gerry!

Thank you so much for your time, last of all, do you have any favourite authors or books on the natural world? Has anything caught your interest lately?
I am particularly partial to the genre recently labelled ‘eco-thriller’.  I think of Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers and Flight Behaviour (2012) by Barbara Kingsolver.  As for non-fiction, anything by the late E O Wilson is inspirational.

You can read more about the background of Jersey Zoo and its charitable aims at www.durrell.org/about-durrell or by picking up any number of the forty or so books written by Durrells. 

All blogs reflect the views of their author and are not a reflection of BIAZA's positions.