priority developments

The major developments across the site comprise the following:

1. ‘African Bai’ is the new facility for our gorillas, and a planned larger group. We shall have two large outside areas, one imitating the clearings in the West African forests to which gorillas and other animal such as elephants, bongo and red river hog, are attracted. There will be a large unheated area for inclement weather, with natural vegetation, plus an indoor heated facility (the ‘day gym’) and off-show sleeping and handling facilities. Either with or adjacent to the gorillas will be guenon monkeys, red river hogs and African clawless otters.

2. ‘Mascarenia’ is a mythical country based on the islands of the western Indian Ocean, to provide a permanent dome for our fruit bats to fly in, with an outstanding visitor experience of walking through with bats, birds and turtles of Mauritius and Madagascar all around. Outside there will be enclosures showing various lemurs, the narrow-striped mongoose and the aye-aye all from Madagascar’s dry forests.

3. ‘Durrell Centre’ Development of a new visitor centre, which would combine under a dramatic solar-panel roof all aspects of visitor reception and care, purpose-built education facilities, café and restaurant, an introduction to the Trust and to Gerald Durrell, an orientation on how to enjoy and get the best out of a site visit, the shop, and an exit ‘Hall of Fame’ which will feature the Trust’s achievements and its key personnel.

4. ‘Eco-Lodges’ A group of self-catering holiday homes, the eco-lodges. These will provide a unique holiday experience, be secluded but with access to the Durrell Centre, and will provide a 4-star stay with all modern facilities yet have low environmental footprints. Projections indicate uptake of about 4000 visitor nights per year.

5. ‘International Training Centre’ Development of our International Training Centre at Les Noyers through upgrading facilities and greater use by our own training programmes and as a facility for other bodies, enhancing the scope for tertiary education in Jersey.

6. ‘Princess Royal Pavilion’ Development of the Princess Royal Pavilion’s facilities to provide a flexible meeting room resource, for Trust use and for small scale conference / corporate use.

7. ‘Conservation Centre for Amphibians and Reptiles’ Replacement of our present Herpetology Department by a new centre for amphibians and reptiles; this will serve our growing role in conserving the world’s frogs, many species of which currently face extinction.

8. ‘Centre for Conservation Medicine’ Provision of new facilities to allow our Veterinary Department to evolve. Conservation Medicine is a more proactive concept addressing, for example, the issues of emergent diseases in conservation, in addition to the continuing responsibility of caring for our living collection. Visitors will be able to watch routine veterinary activities in the new centre.

9. ‘Les Augrès Manor’ Conversion of the outbuildings around Les Augrès Manor from current office use and animal accommodation into up-market holiday accommodation in historic buildings; our Honorary Director, Lee Durrell, will continue to reside in the Manor House, while current offices will be converted for corporate / meeting use.