This book is about a business that, for the most part, no longer exists – the business of collecting animals for display in zoos. Wildlife conservation has changed a lot since then so the kind of expedition that Gerald Durrell and his companion, John, undertook in 1953, described in this book, just could not happen now.
Gerald describes how he and John spent several months in Cameroon collecting a variety of animals, birds and reptiles and some of the adventures they had, including the triumphs and disappointments. He acknowledges right at the beginning that the expedition may seem more exciting than it really was, because all the boring aspects have been omitted. Even so, there were enough exciting moments to fill this book.
He describes some of the local people, who he mostly got on well with – but of course he did have some problems and we are told about these. He describes some of the creatures he collected, and the disappointment when some died or escaped.
My favorite (both at school and now) was a chimpanzee that had already been domesticated. Gerald was asked to look after him before he could be shipped to London. This was no ordinary chimpanzee, as he not only enjoyed smoking cigarettes but was able to light his own using either matches or lighter, and also displayed other characteristics more normally associated with people than with chimpanzees. Always remember that this was 1953.
This is a highly entertaining book, which I first read at school, where it was compulsory reading - and it was the only such book that I enjoyed. I still enjoyed it when I read it again recently, after discovering (to my surprise) that it is still available.
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