The Whispering Land

By Gerald Durrell

The true story of Gerald Durrell's trip to Argentina in the late 1950s to gather animals for his zoo in England. It took him eight months to get the animals he wanted and along the way he made many new friends among the locals, encountered rare and interesting animals and had a pretty good time of it, all in all. The only thing he wasn't able to get done was capturing some vampire bats. He even went so far as to sleep outside one night with his bare foot uncovered, hoping to entice the bats with his own vulnerable toes. The bats were certainly in the area but were not interested in his toes. Later on he reflected that it was probably for the best because if he had been bitten he would have most likely had to undergo a series of injections to prevent the development of rabies!

This was an enjoyable story, lots of critters, some adventure, and descriptions of exotic landscapes and of the many friendly and helpful people without whom his expedition would have been much more difficult and much less successful. While reading it, some fifty plus years after it was written, I couldn't help but wonder if the wild and untamed landscapes he describes have changed much over the decades and if the sleepy little villages are still sleepy and quiet and the abundant wildlife still abundant . . .

A Zoo in My Luggage

By Gerald Durrell

Gerald Durrell was an experienced animal collector, someone who goes out into the country and acquires animals which are then shipped to zoos. After doing this for a number of years for various zoos, he decided he wanted to start his own zoo back in England, his home country. A Zoo in My Luggage is his account of his collecting trip in the late 1950s to the Cameroons in Africa to gather animals for his own zoo. He kind of put the cart before the horse, acquiring animals before he had an actual zoo in which to place them.
So off he goes to the Cameroons, a place he had been to twice before, accompanied by his wife Jacquie, to Bafut, a mountain kingdom there. Relying mainly on local hunters, Gerald paid for interesting and unusual animals they captured. He and his companions often helped out with captures too, sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
Of course, dealing with wild animals poses many problems. They have to be housed, fed, doctored; all their needs attended to. As his menagerie grew, the demands to keep them fed and healthy became greater and greater. Still, Gerald's experience collecting animals enabled him to successfully gather several hundred animals, monkeys, birds, lizards, snakes, apes, mongoose, toads and ship them safely back to Britain. Now if only he had some place to put them all ...

This was a pretty fun book to read. It has lots of funny stories about Gerald's collecting days, lots of stories about animal antics and stories about dealing with the locals. He did get his zoo started, in Jersey, and it exists to this day. Gerald was one of the first people to realize the threat posed to animal populations by human activities and to advocate for their protection. This book is a really enjoyable look back at another, more innocent time and well worth reading.

For another review see Curled Up.

New Words

Jiggers: The female sand flea (Tunga Penetrans) is also known as the chigger, jigger, chigoe, bicho do pé or sand flea. The female feeds by burrowing into the skin of its host. The flea’s abdomen becomes enormously enlarged so that it forms a round sac with the shape and size of a pea. They can infest humans and are mostly found on the feet. For more about jiggers see Feed the Children. "Two patas monkeys brought in; both had severe infestation of jiggers in toes and fingers. Had to lance them, extract jiggers and as precaution against infection injected penicillin."

Pottos: A potto is small primate (Perodicticus potto) from the tropical rain forests of Africa. For an image see Wikipedia. "Have found simple, rapid way of sexing pottos."

Ciné: Refers to one or more of the home movie formats including 8 mm, 9.5 mm, 16 mm film, and Super 8. "I poured out the drinks, and as we sipped them I explained the mysteries of ciné photography to the Fon, showing him how the camera worked, what the film itself looked like and explaining how each little picture was of a separate movement."

Eton wall-game: A vigorous form of football played on a strip of ground 5 meters wide and 110 meters long just beside a slightly curved brick wall and is played only at Eton College. For more info see Economic Expert "Uttering wild screams of fear they [monkeys] fled in a body to the farthest corner of the cage, where they indulged in a disgracefully cowardly scrimmage, vaguely reminiscent of the Eton wall-game, each one doing his best to get into the extreme corner of the cage, behind all his companions."

Lèse-majesté: the crime of violating majesty, an offense against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state. "Later, when we got to know him [a dignified chimpanzee] better, he allowed us to become quite familiar with him and call him Chum [short for Cholmondeley St John], or sometimes, in moments of stress, 'you bloody ape', but this latter term always made us feel as though we were committing lèse-majesté."

Touracos: A touraco is a large brightly crested bird of Africa. "On the remains of what had once been a lawn, fourteen monkeys rolled and played on long leashes, while in the garage frogs croaked, touracos called throatily, and squirrels gnawed loudly on hazel-nut shells."

Marquee: A large tent with open sides, often used for outdoors entertainment. "But I was chiefly worried by the fact that winter was nearly upon us, and the animals could not be expected to survive its rigours in an unheated marquee."