Editing Gerald Durrell (section)

{{Short description|British naturalist and writer (1925–1995)}}
{{Featured article}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Gerald Durrell
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|size=100%|country=GBR|OBE}}
| image             = Gerald Durrell, Askania Nova (cropped).jpg
| alt               = Bearded man in an open-necked shirt
| caption           = Durrell in [[Askania Nova]], 1985
| birth_name        = Gerald Malcolm Durrell
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1925|1|7|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Jamshedpur]], British India
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1995|1|30|1925|1|7|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Saint Helier]], Jersey
| nationality       = British
| father           = [[Lawrence Samuel Durrell]]
| mother = [[Louisa Durrell]]
| relatives         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Lawrence Durrell]] (brother)
* [[Margaret Durrell]] (sister)
* [[Durrell family|Leslie Durrell]] (brother)}}
| spouse            = {{Plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Jacquie Durrell|Jacquie Rasen]]|1951|1979|end=div}}{{#tag:ref||name=Rasen|group=note}}
* {{marriage|[[Lee McGeorge Durrell|Lee Wilson]]|1979}}
}}
| known_for         = {{hlist|Naturalist|writer|founder of [[Jersey Zoo]]|television presenter|conservationist}}
| author_abbrev_zoo = '''Durrell'''
}}
'''Gerald Malcolm Durrell''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (7 January 1925 – 30 January 1995) was a British [[naturalist]], writer, zookeeper, [[conservation movement|conservationist]], and television presenter. He was born in [[Jamshedpur]] in [[British India]],{{#tag:ref|A city in the present-day [[States and union territories of India|Indian state]] of [[Jharkhand]].<ref>{{MW|Jamshedpur}}</ref>|name=Jamshedpur |group = note}} and moved to England when his father died in 1928. In 1935 the family moved to [[Corfu]], and stayed there for four years, before the outbreak of World War II forced them to return to the UK. In 1946 he received an inheritance from his father's will that he used to fund animal-collecting trips to the [[British Cameroons]] and [[British Guiana]]. He married [[Jacquie Durrell|Jacquie Rasen]]{{#tag:ref||name=Rasen|group=note}} in 1951; they had very little money, and she persuaded him to write an account of his first trip to the Cameroons.  The result, titled ''[[The Overloaded Ark]]'', sold well, and he began writing accounts of his other trips.  An expedition to Argentina and Paraguay followed in 1953, and three years later he published ''[[My Family and Other Animals]]'', which became a bestseller.

In the late 1950s Durrell decided to found his own zoo.  He finally found a suitable site on the island of [[Jersey]], and leased the property in late 1959.  He envisaged the [[Jersey Zoo]] as an institution for the study of animals and for captive breeding, rather than a showcase for the public.  In 1963 control of the zoo was turned over to the [[Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust]].  The zoo repeatedly came close to bankruptcy over the next few years, and Durrell raised money for it by his writing and by fundraising appeals.  To guarantee the zoo's future, Durrell launched a successful appeal in 1970 for funds to purchase the property.

Durrell was an [[Alcoholism|alcoholic]].  In 1976 he separated from his wife; they were divorced in 1979, and Durrell remarried, to [[Lee McGeorge Durrell|Lee McGeorge]], an American zoologist.  He and Lee made several television documentaries in the 1980s, including ''Durrell in Russia'' and ''[[Ark on the Move (TV series)|Ark on the Move]]''. They co-authored ''The Amateur Naturalist'', which was intended for amateurs who wanted to know more about the natural history of the world around them, though it also had sections about each of the world's major ecosystems. This book became his most successful, selling well over a million copies; a television series was made from it.

Durrell became an [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] in 1982.  In 1984 he founded the [[Durrell Conservation Academy]], to train conservationists in captive breeding.  The institution has been very influential: its thousands of graduates included a director of [[London Zoo]], an organisation which was once opposed to Durrell's work. He was diagnosed with [[liver cancer]] and [[cirrhosis]] in 1994, and received a liver transplant, but died the following January.  He was cremated, and his ashes were buried at Jersey Zoo.
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