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

64 www.geographical.co.uk JULY 2007