List of expeditions by Gerald Durrell
This is a list of animal collecting and conservation expeditions led by Gerald Durrell.
Major expeditions
[edit]| Year | Place | Primary purpose | Book | Film | Species in focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 / 1948 | Mamfe, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) | Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos | The Overloaded Ark | — | Angwantibo, giant otter shrew |
| 1949 | Mamfe and Bafut, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) | Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos | The Bafut Beagles | — | Galago, hairy frog, African golden cat, flying mouse |
| 1950 | British Guiana (now Guyana) | Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos | Three Singles to Adventure | — | Giant otter, poison arrow frogs, Surinam toad, capybara, Brazilian porcupine, curassow |
| 1953 / 1954 | Argentina and Paraguay | Partially sponsored animal collecting mission | The Drunken Forest | — | Burrowing owl, hornero, anaconda, rhea, giant anteater |
| 1957 | Bafut, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) | Animal collecting mission for his own to-be zoo | A Zoo in My Luggage | To Bafut With Beagles | Patas, galago, grey-necked rockfowl |
| 1958 | Patagonia, Argentina | Animal collecting mission for his own Jersey Zoo | The Whispering Land | Look (Argentinian Expedition) | South American fur seal, Patagonian hare, vampire bat, Magellanic penguin |
| 1962 | Malaysia, and Australia and New Zealand | Shooting of the BBC Nature series Two in the Bush | Two in the Bush | Two in the Bush | kākāpō, kākā, kea, takahē, tuatara, Sumatran rhinoceros, Leadbeater's possum |
| 1965 | Sierra Leone | Animal collecting mission for Jersey Zoo to be made into a TV series by BBC | Section of Catch Me a Colobus | Catch Me a Colobus | Colobus, African leopard, red river hog, potto |
| 1968 | Mexico | Animal collecting mission for Jersey Zoo | Section of Catch Me a Colobus | — | Volcano rabbit, thick-billed parrot |
| 1969 | Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia | Conservation fact-finding mission, with possible material for book never written | — | — | Great Barrier Reef species |
| 1976, 1977 | Mauritius and other Mascarene Islands | Two back-to-back conservation missions and animal collecting expeditions for local breeding and the Jersey Zoo | Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons | The Mauritius Conservation Mission, The Round Island Project | Pink pigeon, Rodrigues fruit bat, Round Island boa, Telfair's skink, Gunther's gecko, Mauritius kestrel |
| 1978 | Assam, India and Bhutan | Conservation mission and filming for an episode in a BBC series | — | "Animals Are My Life" episode in The World About Us series | Pigmy hog |
| 1982 | Mauritius and other Mascarene Islands and Madagascar | Conservation mission and animal collecting expedition for local breeding and Jersey Zoo to be filmed for a BBC TV series about the Trust's role in other countries | Ark on the Move | Ark on the Move | Pink pigeon, Rodrigues fruit bat, Round Island boa, Telfair's skink, Gunther's gecko, Mauritius kestrel, indri, Madagascan boa |
| 1984 | Soviet Union | Shooting of the Channel 4 TV series Durrell in Russia | Durrell in Russia | Durrell in Russia | Przewalski's horse, saiga, cranes, Russian desman |
| 1989 | Belize | As part of Programme for Belize — a conservation project which aimed to conserve 250,000 acres (1000 km2) of tropical rain forest | — | — | Belizean rain forest species |
| 1990 | Madagascar | Conservation mission and animal collecting expedition for local breeding and Jersey Zoo | The Aye-Aye and I | To the Island of Aye-Aye | Aye-aye, indri, ring-tailed lemur, Alaotran lemur, tenrec |