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Friday 14 November 2025

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall joined us at our annual Durrell Lecture last week, discussing Gerald Durrell's life and legacy, and the impact Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has made on species conservation. He tells us more about his love of Gerry and the natural world. 

How did your childhood shape your relationship with the natural world?

I was about five years old when my mum and dad moved out of London and rented a farmhouse in Gloucestershire. My world changed completely, perhaps not quite as dramatically or emphatically as Gerry's world changed when he moved to Corfu in 1945, but nevertheless it was an eye-opening experience for me. I suddenly changed from being on the cusp of becoming an urban urchin to becoming a nature boy. I ran wild in the hedgerows of Gloucestershire and collected snails and looked into bird nests and spent every moment I could outside.

I also spent a lot of time with Gerald Durrell's books as a young lad. I think we all have our transforming moments when it comes to learning to love nature and Gerry’s books, plus moving to the countryside were pivotal for me.

Why did Gerald Durrell have such a profound influence on you?

When Gerry set up Jersey Zoo 66 years ago, he [AS1] was still a young man and conversations about conservation and nature depletion were not widespread. Very little was being discussed about protecting wildlife, and there were already lessons from where things had gone wrong, and animals had gone extinct; hence the dodo being the symbol for Durrell. But he was really ahead of his time in this thinking. It was the trajectory that Gerry was on, he could see into the future in a way that this issue of habitat loss and therefore the urgency for habitat protection or even habitat restoration was going to be critical if we're going to make progress in saving species from extinction. Gerry faced that head on throughout his life and he never gave up hope. He went on doing everything he could to ensure that we could all enjoy the extraordinary creatures of the natural world.

How is Jersey Zoo contributing to Gerald Durrell’s vision?

During my recent visit to the island for the Durrell Lecture I had a wonderful tour of Jersey Zoo. One thing that really stuck with me was that every animal that we looked at, every single enclosure we went to, I was hearing a story about how that animal connects with the work that their field programme teams are doing in Madagascar, in Brazil and Indonesia, or wherever it was in the in the world.

I would like to say how much hope and optimism I got from meeting the incredible team at Jersey Zoo. They were all just so knowledgeable and always saw the bigger picture. I got to join them as they fed the birds, amazing otters and got to see behind the scenes at the wonderful Reptile and Amphibian house that I'm always an absolute sucker for. But one thing that really stuck with me and that was that they are always thinking about the story on the other side of the world. Particularly how the work that they're doing in Jersey enables their teammates in other parts of the world to give us all hope that we are not just saving these species, but restoring and enriching habitats that can continue to thrive for many years to come.