One thing Whipsnade did do for me, was to make me an even more avid and omnivorous reader than I was already. Here I was surrounded by a thousand questions and I was also surrounded by people who could not answer them, so I had to resort to books. I discovered, rather to my surprise, that zoological gardens were not a modern innovation. King Solomon, for example, had a zoo in 794 BC and, earlier than that, in 2900 BC zoological gardens were flourishing in Saqqara in Egypt. Tuthmosis III had a zoo in 1501 BC, and his stepmother, Hatshepsut (admirable woman that she must have been) actually sent animal-collecting expeditions to the Land of Punt (now Somalia). Rameses II had an enviable collection which boasted, among other things, giraffe. After these notable zoo owners, the Chinese started and the Emperor Wen Wang established a 1500-acre park which he called Ling-yu or Garden of Intelligence, an appropriate name for a zoo if it is run and used properly. The Assyrians had many zoos, owned by such people as Semiramis, courtesan of the Assyrian court (who was a leopard fancier), her son Ninus (who fancied lions), and King Ashurbanipal, whose expertise lay in lions and camels. Ptolemy I founded a huge zoo in Alexandria and this was continued and enlarged by Ptolemy II. An indication of its scope was a procession held on the Feast of Dionysus which took all day to pass the stadium in Alexandria and included, amongst other things, 8 pairs of ostrich in harness, peacocks, guinea fowl, pheasants, no less than 96 elephants, 24 lions, 14 leopards, 16 pantharoi or cheetahs, 6 pairs of dromedaries, a giraffe, a huge snake, and a rhinoceros, in addition to hundreds of domestic animals. Most modern zoos would be hard pressed to produce such a display.
The first European zoos were Greek and Roman and these were kept partly as study areas, partly as adjuncts to the circus.
Up to Victorian times zoological gardens fulfilled two functions: they allowed the closer study of animals and they provided what was considered an edifying and amusing spectacle of God’s wonder for his next of kin, man. Unfortunately, zoological gardens gradually became places of amusement first and places of scientific advancement a very poor second, except for a few notable exceptions. Animals were merely kept to amuse the public; people went to the zoo in the same spirit that their ancestors used to visit Bedlam. Unfortunately, today many people still visit the zoo in the same spirit, but interest in the behaviour and ecology of animals is growing and this is a healthy sign. In the old days, when the world seemed a bottomless cornucopia stuffed with animal life it was perhaps understandable that a zoological collection was merely an interesting sideshow and nothing more. For example, no really serious attempt was made to breed the animals that were kept; if they died they were simply replaced – from what seemed like Mother Nature’s endless store. Today this seems unforgivable.
As I pursued my reading I began to learn with horror of man’s rapacious encroachment upon the world and the terrible devastation that he was producing among animal life. I read of the dodo, flightless and harmless, discovered and exterminated almost in the same breath. I read of the passenger pigeon in North America, whose vast numbers ‘darkened the sky’, who were so numerous that their nesting colonies measured several hundred square miles. They were good to eat; the last one died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. The quagga, that strange half horse, half zebra once so common in South Africa, was harried to extinction by the Boer farmers; the last quagga died in the London Zoo in 1909. It seemed incredible, almost impossible, that people in charge of zoos should have been so ignorant that they did not realise that these animals and birds were tottering on the border of extinction and that they did not do something about it. Surely this was one of the true functions of a zoological garden, to help animals that were being pushed towards extinction? Why hadn’t they done this? It was because, I think, in those days they worked on the principle of ‘there’s plenty more where that came from’. But the world is dwindling, the numbers of mankind are ever increasing, and more and more we are discovering that there is not ‘plenty more where that came from’.
When I left Whipsnade, I was still determined to have a zoo of my own but I was equally determined that if I ever achieved this ambition my zoo would have to fulfil three functions in order to justify its existence. Firstly, it would have to act as an aid to the education of people so that they would realise how fascinating and how important the other forms of life in the world were, so that they would stop being quite so arrogant and self-important and appreciate the fact that the other forms of life had just as much right to existence as they had. Secondly, research into the behaviour of animals would be undertaken so that by this means one could not only learn more about the behaviour of human beings but also be in a better position to help animals in their wild state, for unless you know the needs of the various species of animal you cannot practise conservation successfully. Thirdly – and this seemed to me to be of the utmost urgency – the zoo would have to be a reservoir of animal life, a sanctuary for threatened species, keeping and breeding them so that they would not vanish from the earth for ever as the dodo, the quagga and the passenger pigeon had done.
For many years after leaving Whipsnade I was lucky enough to be able to undertake expeditions to various parts of the world collecting animals and during these trips I became increasingly aware of the dangers that threatened animal life: first, the direct danger of the actual killing of the animal and then the indirect danger of the destruction of its habitat. It seemed to me that the establishment of a breeding sanctuary for an ever-increasing number of threatened species was of the utmost urgency. So I founded my own zoological park in Jersey in the Channel Islands and presently I created the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust which took over the park as its headquarters.
To describe the aims and objects of this trust I can do no better than to quote from a brochure I wrote about our activities.
‘Although in recent years there has been a great awakening of interest in the conservation of animal life and its habitat, the process of protection is a slow one. In a great many countries although the animals are officially protected, this is “paper protection” only, since the governments or the wildlife departments concerned have not as yet the money or the manpower to implement the law completely. All over the world innumerable species are threatened by the direct or indirect intervention of man. It must be remembered that it is just as easy to eliminate a numerous species by destroying or altering its habitat as it is by indiscriminate slaughter with guns.
‘In many cases the population of a certain creature has dropped so low that it can no longer hope to survive unaided, for its numbers are too small for it to be able to cope with the natural hazards of existence, i.e. predators, or perhaps a failing food supply. It is these species that the Trust is concentrating on. If breeding colonies of these can be set up in ideal surroundings, with an unlimited food supply, freedom from predators, and their offspring guarded from the moment they are born, then these species will survive. At a later date when, in their countries of origin, sufficient funds are available for adequate conservation measures to be put into operation, then a nucleus breeding stock from the Trust’s collection can be returned to repopulate those areas in which the species has become extinct.
‘That this is not only possible but a very necessary course of action has been proved on numerous occasions. The Père David’s deer, for example, became extinct in China but, due to the late Duke of Bedford, a breeding colony was built up at Woburn Abbey. This magnificent deer is now safe and recently it has been re-introduced to China.
‘Another spectacular example of this type of work was the saving of the Hawaiian goose from extinction by Peter Scott’s Wildfowl Trust. Due to Mr Scott’s efforts, large breeding colonies have been established in various zoological and avicultural institutions throughout the world, the bird has been re-introduced to Hawaii and is now spreading over its former range.
‘The list of such successes is a long one, including such creatures as the European bison, Przewalski’s wild horse, the Saiga antelope, and so on.
‘It will therefore be seen that the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust is a form of stationary Noah’s Ark. Its intention is merely to try to save certain species from total eradication in exactly the same way that a museum provides protection for ancient monuments and buildings. The animals that share the planet with us are just as important and, while it is conceivable that another Rembrandt or Leonardo da Vinci might be born, once an animal species is exterminated no amount of effort on our part – even in this age of frightening technology – can reproduce it again.’
If you have read this book and have enjoyed it, then may I ask you to join me in my efforts to save some species of animal life from extinction?
Will you join my trust? The annual subscription is small but I can assure you that your money is put to good purpose. If you are interested in the fate of animal life please write to me for details at:
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Les Augrès Manor
Jersey, Channel Islands, JE3 5BP
UK
From the point of view of the animals this work is of the utmost urgency, so please join me.