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  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971308
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

Encounters with Animals




'I once travelled back from Africa on a ship with an Irish captain who did not like animals. This was unfortunate, because most of my luggage consisted of about two hundred odd cages of assorted wildlife . . .'

Gerald Durrell's accounts of the animals he encountered on his travels were some of the first widely shared descriptions of the world's most extraordinary animals.

Moving from the West Coast of Africa to the northern tip of South America - and elsewhere - Durrell observes the courtships, wars and characters of a variety of creatures, from birds of paradise, to ants and anteaters, among others.

Told with his trademark charm and humour, Gerald Durrell's Encounters with Animals is a uniquely entertaining exploration of some of the world's most striking landscapes and the wildlife it is home to.

  • Published: 21 November 2012
  • ISBN: 9780141971308
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 176

About the author

Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) moved from England to Corfu with his family when he was eight. He spent much of his time studying the island's wildlife and surprising his family by keeping lots of very unusual pets in very unexpected places. He grew up to be a famous naturalist and conservationist, leading expeditions to exotic places such as Argentina, Sierra Leone, Assam and Madagascar. Durrell dedicated his life to the preservation of wildlife, especially the less glamorous kinds, which he called 'little brown jobs' and 'small uglies'. It is through his efforts that creatures such as the Mauritius pink pigeon and the Mallorcan midwife toad have avoided extinction.

Over his lifetime he presented many TV shows, and wrote thirty-seven books, including My Family and Other Animals and its two sequels,Birds, Beasts and Relatives and The Garden of the Gods. He founded Jersey Zoo in 1959 as a centre for the conservation of endangered species, and in 1963 created the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust - later renamed Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in his honour - of which his wife, Lee, is still Honorary Director. He was awarded the OBE in 1982.

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Praise for Encounters with Animals

A renegade who was right . . . He was truly a man before his time

Sir David Attenborough

If animals, birds and insects could speak, they would possibly award Mr Gerald Durrell one of their first Nobel prizes

Times Literary Supplement

Durrell has an uncanny knack of discovering human as well as animal eccentricities

Sunday Telegraph
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