Menagerie Manor

The beloved naturist and author of My Family and Other Animals shares the pleasures and pitfalls of opening a zoo on the English Channel Island of Jersey.

Spurred by his passion for animals and a lifelong dream, in the spring of 1959 Gerald Durrell opened the Jersey Zoo—now known as the Durrell Wildlife Park—on the grounds of an old manor house. The menagerie provided a safe habitat for rare and endangered species and exposed its human visitors to the wonders of nature.

Dealing with esca...