GEOPEOPLE: LEE DURRELL

“IKEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

As the 50th anniversary of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust draws near, Jo Sargent heads to Jersey to meet honorary director Lee Durrell to fi nd out more about the trust’s eff orts to conserve endangered species

f you notice, I haven’t mentioned the z-word yet.” Sitting in the bright and airy living room of Les Augres Manor, the 16th-century manor house that serves as headquarters for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT), Lee Durrell is still smiling, despite the fact that I’ve just mentioned the one word I had been warned would be guaranteed a frosty reception. “When you go out into the grounds,” she continues, “you’ll see lots of animals here in Jersey, which belong in different places, and

the public are able to come in to see them. Technically, the defi nition of a zoo is a place where exotic animals are viewed by the public, so I suppose that technically, we are a zoo.” Dictionary defi nitions aside, as I walk around the site later that day, it’s immediately clear to me that the DWCT isn’t a zoo in any conventional sense of the word. Established in 1959, The Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, as it was originally known, was the realisation of a life-long dream for conservationist and author Gerald Durrell. Encapsulating

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12.5 hectares of park and farmland, the site was dedicated to breeding endangered species. However, the longterm vision for the trust has always been for it to become something much more signifi cant than a mere stud farm for exotic animals. Under the guiding hand of Gerald and Lee, his second wife, the trust pioneered the use of scientifi c methods in captive breeding, but it has also gone on to encourage animal exchanges between zoos, to offer education programmes to schools in Jersey and to establish awareness campaigns among people in the homelands of endangered animals. And it has fostered strong relationships with governments in these countries, in order to develop in-country conservation projects, and set up a training base © Durrell/James Morgan

in Jersey that educates conservation professionals from all over the world. Having served as Gerald’s right hand within the organisation, Lee was the obvious choice to take over the reins when he died in 1990, and she has been working as the trust’s honorary director and upholding its core aims ever since. “What Gerry started and what we’re carrying on here is so vitally important,” she explains. “Saving biodiversity – that’s very much our focus, alongside everything that comes with it, such as safeguarding habitat and working with communities. But our main focus is still species. Saving species from extinction – that’s our mission.” And the trust has certainly been successful. It currently has 78 projects running in 18 countries, has won awards for 30 years of successful orang-utan breeding, was the fi rst to breed aye-ayes in captivity and has provided training to more than 1,400 wildlife professionals from 120 countries.

Animal attraction Like her husband, Durrell’s fascination with animals was obvious from an early age, and she was forever bringing animals home after nature rambles. “The fi rst one I had was a toad,” she recalls. “My grandfather was an amateur carpenter, so he started making all my animal cages. It was a wonderful thing to do at the weekends – visiting my grandparents with whatever creature I’d collected that week. I had the usual things – guinea pigs and hamsters and white mice – but also box turtles and various birds and things that had fallen

Far left: Lee Durrell, 58, the honorary director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust; Left: Lee and her late husband Gerald are mobbed by some redruff ed and ringtailed lemurs at the trust’s headquarters in Jersey

out of the nest. My mother did draw the line at snakes, so I never snuck one of those into the house.” Her passion for all things biological extended to her education, and she was automatically placed in an advanced science course when she fi rst arrived at university, although she decided to study philosophy instead. But eventually the lure of the wild grew too great and she switched back to zoology, going on to gain a PhD in animal behaviour from Duke University in North Carolina, USA. It was while studying for her PhD in animal communication that she fi rst travelled to Madagascar, a country that continues to play a signifi cant part in her life. “It does,” she agrees, “and with good reason for a biologist and a conservationist. It attracts people in my kind of fi eld like a magnet.” Drawn by the impressive biodiversity, she headed to the island in 1973 to record examples of lemur communication. Unfortunately all of her expensive sound equipment broke down, bar a simple tape recorder, so she ended up studying anything that made any noise at all, from insects and frogs to geckoes. She remained on the island for two years, and her stay had a lasting impact. “It was an amazing experience for somebody my age,” she recalls. “I was only 22 or 23 and it was formidable, it really was.” In 1981, two years after her marriage to Gerald she returned to the island with him in tow. “Gerry had said, of all the places in the world that he wanted to go and had never been, it had to be Madagascar,” she explains. “And I was the one who was able to take him and

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