Celebrating the Centenary

2025 marks the 100th year after the birth of Gerald Durrell.  AFD will commemorate the centennial by joining with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in the GD100 appeal.

 2025 is a time to celebrate one of the most remarkable writers and champions of nature of the twentieth century and to reflect on why Gerald was important then and now and how his legacy lives on.

Please see https://youtu.be/BhtPyoIKIUY?si=INhl1O_gCzzsOPIS

 Through his popular and inspirational books and his visionary concept of how zoos could and should play a vital role in conservation, Gerald’s impact on people and animals over the last seven decades has been enormous.

 His classic book describing his childhood on the island of Corfu in Greece gave his readers a love of reading and nature, and his revolutionary zoo in Jersey in the British Channel Islands brought his vision to fruition.  Jersey Zoo became a stellar example of how zoos help to save species from extinction, and it continues to be a beacon of hope in the global conservation movement.

Jersey Zoo is the headquarters of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the non-profit organization Gerald established more than sixty years ago to carry out his mission all over the world.  The Trust works in many far-flung places, from Madagascar to Brazil and India to the Caribbean, rescuing threatened species and their habitats in collaboration with local people.  But Jersey Zoo is the heartbeat of the Trust, where rare species are bred and studied, people from their home countries are trained to care for them in the wild and visitors learn to love and appreciate them.

 To celebrate Gerald Durrell’s centennial, AFD will join with the Trust to future-proof Jersey Zoo, which was so near and dear to Gerald’s heart.  GD100 aims to maintain the animal care facilities and other support facilities at Jersey Zoo to world-class standards to enable the Trust to carry out the mission to save species from extinction in the years to come.

 To learn more about GD100, please visit https://www.durrell.org/gd100/

 To contribute to GD100, please follow this link to our Donations page https://www.americanfriendsofdurrell.org/donate

 Thank you in advance for being part of GD100 – we really appreciate it!