List of expeditions by Gerald Durrell

This is a list of animal collecting and conservation expeditions led by Gerald Durrell.

Major expeditions

Year Place Primary purpose Book Film Species in focus
1947 / 1948 Mamfe, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos The Overloaded Ark — Angwantibo, giant otter shrew
1949 Mamfe and Bafut, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos The Bafut Beagles — Galago, hairy frog, African golden cat, flying mouse
1950 British Guiana (now Guyana) Independent animal collecting mission for British zoos Three Singles to Adventure — Giant otter, poison arrow frogs, Surinam toad, capybara, Brazilian porcupine, curassow
1953 / 1954 Argentina and Paraguay Partially sponsored animal collecting mission The Drunken Forest — Burrowing owl, hornero, anaconda, rhea, giant anteater
1957 Bafut, British Cameroons (now Cameroon) Animal collecting mission for his own to-be zoo A Zoo in My Luggage To Bafut With Beagles Patas, galago, grey-necked rockfowl
1958 Patagonia, Argentina Animal collecting mission for his own Jersey Zoo The Whispering Land Look (Argentinian Expedition) South American fur seal, Patagonian hare, vampire bat, Magellanic penguin
1962 Malaysia, and Australia and New Zealand Shooting of the BBC Nature series Two in the Bush Two in the Bush Two in the Bush kākāpō, kākā, kea, takahē, tuatara, Sumatran rhinoceros, Leadbeater's possum
1965 Sierra Leone Animal collecting mission for Jersey Zoo to be made into a TV series by BBC Section of Catch Me a Colobus Catch Me a Colobus Colobus, African leopard, red river hog, potto
1968 Mexico Animal collecting mission for Jersey Zoo Section of Catch Me a Colobus — Volcano rabbit, thick-billed parrot
1969 Great Barrier Reef, Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia Conservation fact-finding mission, with possible material for book never written — — Great Barrier Reef species
1976, 1977 Mauritius and other Mascarene Islands Two back-to-back conservation missions and animal collecting expeditions for local breeding and the Jersey Zoo Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons The Mauritius Conservation Mission, The Round Island Project Pink pigeon, Rodrigues fruit bat, Round Island boa, Telfair's skink, Gunther's gecko, Mauritius kestrel
1978 Assam, India and Bhutan Conservation mission and filming for an episode in a BBC series — "Animals Are My Life" episode in The World About Us series Pigmy hog
1982 Mauritius and other Mascarene Islands and Madagascar Conservation mission and animal collecting expedition for local breeding and Jersey Zoo to be filmed for a BBC TV series about the Trust's role in other countries Ark on the Move Ark on the Move Pink pigeon, Rodrigues fruit bat, Round Island boa, Telfair's skink, Gunther's gecko, Mauritius kestrel, indri, Madagascan boa
1984 Soviet Union Shooting of the Channel 4 TV series Durrell in Russia Durrell in Russia Durrell in Russia Przewalski's horse, saiga, cranes, Russian desman
1989 Belize As part of Programme for Belize — a conservation project which aimed to conserve 250,000 acres (1000 km2) of tropical rain forest — — Belizean rain forest species
1990 Madagascar Conservation mission and animal collecting expedition for local breeding and Jersey Zoo The Aye-Aye and I To the Island of Aye-Aye Aye-aye, indri, ring-tailed lemur, Alaotran lemur, tenrec