THESE days it is hard to imagine a Jersey without what we used to know as the Zoo.

It may now be called just Durrell, but back in 1959 it opened its doors as Jersey Zoo Park on 26 March.

On the day itself the park attracted something like 700 people, but the next day was Good Friday and no fewer than 1,950 visitors poured through the gates of Les Augrès Manor.

The Zoo’s first director was Kenneth Smith. ‘I am extremely gratified at the public’s response to our venture,’ he said.

The Jersey Weekly Post reported on the opening in the first week of April.
‘A vast programme of construction, alteration and development has been in pro-gress since Mr Smith arrived in the Island at the beginning of last December.

Cages have been built, outhouses have been converted and rooms have been insulated. But a certain amount of work remains to be done,’ read the report.

The paper went on to say that the Zoo had been founded by Gerald Durrell with a particular purpose in mind. It was to breed rare creatures — especially ones threatened with extinction in their own habitat.

‘A number of births have been recorded among the zoo inmates, and among the most recent is a fruit bat baby — seen only occasionally since its birth as it remains enfolded in its mother’s wings,’ said the report.

Photos from the opening weekend show groups of people gathered around what was then the monkey enclosure. The layout at that time consisted of aviaries, a crane paddock and a main animal house, which contained monkeys, squirrels, wallabies and bush babies. But perhaps among the most popular new arrivals was four-month-old Leo, a lion cub which arrived from Dublin Zoo.

The first reptile house was established by one Lee Thomas, who was a young National Serviceman who had spent all his leave from his station in Belgium organising the comfort of his reptile guests.

These included three kinds of constrictor, stump-tailed and blue-tongued skinks as well as a fish-eating crocodile.

The most unusual of the animals was a needle-clawed lemur which, according to the Post, was ‘captured’ by Gerald Durrell himself. ‘It is hoped that by the time he returns from an expedition in the Andes in June, this first zoo in the Channel Islands will have become a permanent attraction to residents, visitors to the Island and special parties.’

That is a hope which Durrell has more than fulfilled since it opened 50 years ago.

Words: Anna Plunkett-Cole

Picture: Lee Durrell at her home at Augrès Manor

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