Sergey Shrunov on his Instagram page. Sergei Shnurov

Gerald Malcolm Durrell - English naturalist, writer, founder of the Jersey Zoo and Conservation Trust wildlife who now bear his name - was born January 7, 1925 in the Indian city of Jamshedpur.

He was the fourth and most youngest child in the family of British civil engineer Lawrence Samuel Durrell and his wife Louise Florence Durrell (née Dixie). According to relatives, at the age of two, Gerald fell ill with “zoomania,” and his mother recalled that one of his first words was “zoo” (zoo).

In 1928 after the death of their father, the family moved to England, and seven years later, on the advice of Gerald’s older brother, Lawrence, greek island Corfu.

There were few real educators among Gerald Durrell's first home teachers. The only exception was the naturalist Theodore Stephanides (1896-1983). It was from him that Gerald received his first systematic knowledge of zoology. Stephanides appears more than once on the pages of one of the most famous books Gerald Durrell's novel My Family and Other Animals. The books “Birds, Beasts and Relatives” are dedicated to him ( 1969 ) and "Amateur Naturalist" ( 1982 ).

In 1939(after the outbreak of World War II) Gerald and his family return to England and get a job in London store"Aquarium".

But the real start of Darrell's research career was his work at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire. Gerald got a job here immediately after the war as a “student caretaker,” or “animal boy,” as he called himself. It was here that he received his first professional training and began collecting a “dossier” containing information about rare and endangered species of animals (and this was 20 years before the appearance of the International Red Book).

After the end of the war, 20-year-old Darrell decides to return to his historical homeland - Jamshedpur.

In 1947 Gerald Durrell, having reached adulthood (21 years old), received part of his father's inheritance. With this money he organized three expeditions - two to British Cameroon ( 1947-1949 ) and one to British Guiana ( 1950 ). These expeditions do not bring profit, and in the early 50s Gerald finds himself without a livelihood or job.

Not a single zoo in Australia, the USA or Canada could offer him a position. At this time, Lawrence Durrell, Gerald's older brother, advises him to take up his pen, especially since “the English love books about animals.”

Gerald's first story - "The Hunt for the Hairy Frog" - had unexpected success, the author was even invited to personally read this work on the radio. His first book, The Overloaded Ark ( 1953 ) was dedicated to a trip to Cameroon and received rave reviews from both readers and critics.

The author was noticed by major publishers, and the royalties for The Overloaded Ark and Gerald Durrell's second book, Three Singles To Adventure, 1954 ) - allowed him to organize in 1954 expedition to South America. However, at that time there was a military coup in Paraguay, and almost the entire collection of animals had to be left there. Darrell described his impressions of this trip in next book- “Under the canopy of the drunken forest” (The Drunken Forest, 1955 ). At the same time, at the invitation of his brother, Lawrence, Gerald vacationed in Corfu.

Familiar places evoked a lot of childhood memories - this is how the famous “Greek” trilogy appeared: “My Family and Other Animals” ( 1956 ), "Birds, animals and relatives" ( 1969 ) and "Garden of the Gods" ( 1978 ). The first book of the trilogy enjoyed wild success. In the UK alone, My Family and Other Animals was reprinted 30 times, and in the US 20 times.

In total, Gerald Durrell wrote more than 30 books (almost all of them were translated into dozens of languages) and made 35 films. Debut four-part TV film “To Bafut With Beagles” (BBC), released in 1958, was very popular in England.

In 1959 Darrell created a zoo on the island of Jersey, and in 1963 The Jersey Wildlife Conservation Fund was established at the zoo.

Darrell's main idea was to breed rare and endangered species of animals in a zoo with the aim of further resettling them in their natural habitats. This idea has now become a generally accepted scientific concept. If it were not for the Jersey Foundation, many species of animals would only be preserved as stuffed animals in museums. Thanks to the Foundation, the pink dove, the Mauritian kestrel, the golden lion marmoset and marmoset monkeys, the Australian corroboree frog, the radiated tortoise from Madagascar and many other species were saved from complete extinction.

Gerald Durrell has died January 30, 1995 in St. Helier, Jersey, from blood poisoning, nine months after a liver transplant, at 71 years of age.

Major literary works
In total, Gerald Durrell wrote 37 books. Of these, 28 were translated into Russian.
1953 - “The Overloaded Ark”
1954 - “Three Singles To Adventure”
1954 - “The Bafut Beagles”
1955 - “New Noah” ( The new Noah)
1955 - “Under the canopy of the drunken forest” (The Drunken Forest)
1956 - “My Family and Other Animals” and Other Animals)
1958 - “Encounters with Animals” / “Around the World”
1960 - “A Zoo in My Luggage”
1961 - “Zoos” (Look At Zoos)
1961 - “The Whispering Land”
1964 - “Menagerie Manor”
1966 - “The Way of the Kangaroo” / “Two in the Bush”
1968 - “The Donkey Rustlers”
1968 - “Rosy Is My Relative”
1969 - “Birds, Beasts And Relatives”
1971 - “Halibut fillet” / “Flounder fillet” (Fillets of Plaice)
1972 - “Catch Me A Colobus”
1973 - “Beasts In My Belfry”
1974 - “The Talking Parcel”
1976 - “The Stationary Ark”
1977 - “Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons”
1978 - “The Garden of the Gods”
1979 - “The Picnic and Suchlike Pandemonium”
1981 - “The mockery bird”
1982 - “The Amateur Naturalist”
1982 - “Ark on the Move”
1984 - “How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist”
1986 - “Durrell in Russia” (Durrell in Russia)
1990 - “The Ark’s Anniversary”
1991 - “Marrying Off Mother”
1992 - “The Aye-aye and I”

Awards, titles and prizes:
1956 - Member of the International Institute of Arts and Letters
1974 - Member of the Institute of Biology in London
1976 - Honorary Diploma from the Argentine Society for the Protection of Animals
1977 - Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Yale University
1981 - Officer of the Order of the Golden Ark
1982 - Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)
1988 - Honorary Doctor of Science, Honorary Professor, Durham University
1988 - Richard Hooper Day Medal - Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
1989 - Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Kent, Canterbury