Two in the Bush (26 page)

The picture of conservation that I found in New Zealand, Australia and Malaya was distressingly familiar. Small bands of dedicated, underpaid and overworked individuals are fighting a battle
against public apathy and political and big business chicanery. By and large people are only apathetic because they do not realise what is going on, but the most dangerous part of the problem is
political apathy because it is only at top level that you can get things done. Most politicians would not risk their careers for the sake of conservation, because firstly they do not think it is
important, and secondly they treat all conservationists with the disregard that they would display to an elderly spinster’s ravings over her pet peke. A Cabinet Minister, no less, in New
Zealand said to me that it did not matter if some albatrosses which nested on an island in the south deserted their colony. The reason he gave for this was that the island was so far south that no
one interested in albatrosses could get down there anyway, so why worry? My reply was that there were a number of paintings and sculptures in Europe which I should probably never see, but I would
not suggest destroying them on that score. But if you get this sort of attitude at government level, what chance does the conservationist stand? People very complacently say, ‘Oh, there are
large national parks and the wildlife will be quite safe in those.’ What very few people realise is that the greater majority of these national parks are not inviolate. Should, for example,
gold or tin or diamonds be found in them, the government could immediately allow mining in the area, thus destroying the whole point of the park. This is not just an alarmist attitude, because it
has been done in the past. In fact, while I am writing this, there is a suggestion in New Zealand that mining activities take place on an island which is supposed to be one of their major
sanctuaries and which is the last outpost for several unique species of bird. Again, in many areas animals have full protection on paper: you are not allowed to hunt or capture them. But this is
purely paper protection and does not apply in fact for the simple reason that no machinery has been set up, either through apathy or through lack of funds, to implement the law. It is rather like
saying you must not kill your neighbour but if you do we cannot stop you because we have no police force.

During the last few years there has been a growing awareness among people of the importance of preserving wildlife and its habitat. For a lot of species – the number, in fact, fills two
fat volumes – this concern has come too late. In a great number of other cases there are species whose population has been cut down to such an extent that only a herculean effort can possibly
save them.

All my life I have been extremely concerned about this problem. It seems to me that in many cases one could, by taking appropriate action, safeguard the creature in its natural habitat, but in
many other cases this is an impossibility – or at least an impossibility at this moment. A good example of what I mean is the case of the flightless rail, of Inaccessible Island, one of the
Tristan da Cunha group. This tiny little bird exists only on this island, which is about four square miles in area. It is found nowhere else in the world. On paper it is strictly protected, which
is fine, but a friend of mine, a keen ornithologist who is in the navy, called in at Tristan da Cunha on his destroyer, and among the many souvenirs that the local people brought on board to sell
to the sailors were rather badly stuffed flightless rails. Now the total world population of this bird cannot be more than a few hundred, since the size of their habitat would not support more, so
what sort of damage is this depredation doing? There is no game warden in Tristan da Cunha to watch over the flightless rail; it would be completely impractical to have one. Yet, on that minute
speck of land, the accidental introduction of rats or pigs or cats or any one of the human beings’ henchmen, could destroy the flightless rail as completely as the dodo in a matter of weeks
or months. So there is your problem. In a case like this, how does one go about saving the rail? You can designate the island a sanctuary, but rats, pigs and cats unfortunately would be the last to
hear of it, and unless there was somebody on the spot (which would cost money) you could not be certain that the sanctuary would be anything other than another airy paper promise. If, therefore,
the rail is to be saved, it must be taken into safe custody in a place where it can live and breed without fear of human or animal predators.

The case of the flightless rail is not an isolated one; there are dozens of
hundreds
of species all over the world which are in a similar predicament. Sometimes they are threatened by the
fact that their habitat is being destroyed or they are being preyed upon by human beings to such an extent that they can no longer hold their own, or else they are threatened by the fact that in
the country in which they live there is such a total ignorance of conservation that people just simply do not worry.

At one time, if you had suggested that these creatures should be rescued and kept and bred in captivity, you would have been shouted down by all the well-meaning but woolly minded animal lovers
who are fondly under the impression that an animal in the wild state leads an idyllic existence. But slowly even these people have come to realise that in certain cases this is the only way of
saving a species. In the last hundred years there have been several spectacular examples of this. The Pére David deer, for instance, which was only known from the gardens of the Imperial
Palace in Peking. After considerable difficulty (because the bamboo curtains in those days was even thicker than it is today) a few specimens of this remarkable deer were brought to Europe. It is
just as well, because during the Boxer rebellion the herd in the Imperial Palace gardens was slaughtered and eaten. With much care and trouble, the late Duke of Bedford gathered together a few
specimens dotted about in zoos in Europe and formed a small herd at Woburn Abbey. Over the years these have increased and now number some four hundred. Breeding pairs have been sent to most of the
major zoos in the world and just recently a pair was actually sent back to China.

The same success story can be told of the European bison, the Hawaiian goose, the North American bison and a great many others. The most recent and spectacular example was the case of the
Arabian oryx. Hunted and harried by Arabs in fast cars with machine-guns and even, very sportingly, hunted by plane, this beautiful creature was reduced in numbers to such an extent that it was
quite obvious that it could not hold its own. There were no conservation laws to protect it and the Arabs were completely uninterested in the fact that it might become extinct. A few of the
remnants of this species were caught and shipped to America, where they are successfully breeding. At some future date, should the attitude towards conservation in their native home change,
breeding pairs can be sent back to re-populate the areas from which they have been exterminated.

When dealing with a species, people always delude themselves as to numbers. ‘Oh, there are plenty of those,’ is the usual phrase, simply because they happen to have seen a hundred
and fifty specimens at a given moment; it never seems to occur to them that those might be the only hundred and fifty specimens in existence. That you can eliminate even the most prolific species
in a very short space of time, is exemplified by the passenger pigeon. This was found in North America in such numbers that it was probably the biggest concentration of birds known on earth. Some
flocks were, at a conservative estimate, 2,230,272,000 birds strong. When they roosted, the weight of their numbers broke large branches off trees. There was some small justification for saying
that there were plenty of those! So they were shot unmercifully, because there were plenty of them, and their eggs and young were taken in vast quantities, because there were plenty of them. The
last passenger pigeon died, celibate, in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. If somebody had had the interest to take four or five specimens of this prolific species and breed them in captivity, the
passenger pigeon would not be extinct. Then, as the attitude towards conservation changed in North America, it could have been re-introduced to its former range.

It is only quite recently that conservationists and zoological gardens have become aware of these facts of life, and the majority of zoos now realise that their function is no longer to exist as
places of interest and amusement, but that their primary object must be to keep and breed these threatened species. They must, in fact, act as reservoirs to prevent hundreds of animals from
becoming extinct.

In 1959 I started a zoo in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, with just such an objective in mind. Once the zoo was established, I turned it into the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust. The
purposes of the Trust are quite straightforward: firstly, to try to build up breeding colonies of those species which, in their natural state, receive either no protection or merely token paper
protection, thus ensuring that they do not vanish for ever. We live in hopes, at the same time, that eventually breeding pairs might be re-introduced to their country of origin. The second purpose
is to try to explain the urgent need for conservation – but sensible conservation, based on what we know about the way the world functions and bearing in mind the needs of mankind. Although
we are small, we are the very first zoo in the world to devote all our efforts to this sort of conservation and because we are small, we need your help.

If you enjoyed this book and have read and enjoyed some of my other books, then you will realise that it is the animals that have made it enjoyable. I am now asking
you
to help
me
to save some of these animals. You might never, in your lifetime, see the creatures that you are helping, but does this matter? Do you feel cheated on Poppy Day because you cannot actually see the
maimed victim that your half-crown is helping?

Unlike us, animals have no control over their future. They cannot ask for home rule, they cannot worry their M.P.s with their grievances, they cannot even get their unions to agree to a strike
for better conditions. Their future and their very existence depends on us. The Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust has created a sanctuary for the innumerable threatened species, a place where they
can live and breed without fear of enemies – human or animal. Eventually, we hope, when conditions in their native countries permit, they and their offspring can be reintroduced to their
natural habitat. In effect, then, we have created a sort of stationary Noah’s Ark. The need for such work is terribly urgent. In the case of many animals, help in five or ten years will be
too late – they will have vanished. In order to survive they need your help, but they need it now. By becoming a member of the Trust you will be helping them immeasurably, so put this book
down and write to me at the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust, Les Augres Manor, Trinity, Jersey, Channel Islands, and say you will join, and then get all your relatives and friends (even your
enemies) to join as well. With your help dozens of species may be saved.

A MESSAGE FROM

The end of this book isn’t the end of Gerald Durrell’s story. The various experiences you have just read about gave impetus and inspiration to his lifetime crusade
to preserve the rich diversity of animal life on this planet.

Although he died in 1995, the words of Gerald Durrell in this and his other books will continue to inspire people everywhere with love and respect for what he called ‘this magical
world’. His work goes on through the untiring efforts of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

Over the years many readers of Gerald Durrell’s books have been so motivated by his experiences and vision that they have wanted to continue the story for themselves by supporting the work
of his Trust. We hope that you will feel the same way today because through his books and life, Gerald Durrell set us all a challenge. ‘Animals are the great voteless and voiceless
majority,’ he wrote, ‘who can only survive with our help.’

Please don’t let your interest in conservation end when you turn this page. Write to us now and we’ll tell you how you can be part of our crusade to save animals from extinction. For
further information, or to send a donation, write to:

www.durrell.org

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