WILD LIFESPRING/SUMMER 2017 DURRELL WWW.DURRELL.ORG animal With 15 different adoptions animal adoptions to choose from… Kea Badongo Freya Bluey Bahia Kate Barnaby lndigo Stumpy Bandro Dobby Bintang Astrid Homer Raymi Who will you choose? VISIT WWW.DURRELL.ORG/ADOPT TO FIND OUT MORE DURRELL ADOPT SAVING SPECIES FROM EXTINCTION WWW.DURRELL.ORG/ADOPT WELCOME WELCOME TO OUR NEW LOOK MEMBERS MAGAZINE I hope you are as pleased as I am conservation portfolio, what we can with our new-look magazine. It was do to be ‘greener’ and how to stretch time to rethink the metaphor ‘on the limited resources in our programmes in edge’, because Durrell is bringing the wild. One idea, which is not exactly unprecedented, but is tremendously back so many species from the brink invigorating for all Durrell staff, is to reinstate of extinction and WILD LIFE better the name ‘Jersey Zoo’. describes the optimism we all feel Ten years ago we made a conscious at Durrell. decision to avoid the word ‘zoo’, because We also wanted to broaden the content of its negative connotations at the time. of our magazine to resonate with all our Today we embrace it, because modern Members of all ages, from the youngest zoos have made great progress in the Dodo-ling to the oldest Honorary Fellow. service of conservation, both in the zoo Lee Durrell Whether you are an artist, a scientist or setting and in the wild. Gerald Durrell and HONORARY DIRECTOR a philanthropist, whether you simply love his early team had pioneered much of this, animals or have a burning passion to and Durrell will continue its ground-breaking save them, I know you will find something work at Jersey Zoo to make zoos even especially for YOU in the pages that follow! better. Speaking of new, our Chief Executive, I am certain that Gerry would have been Dr Lesley Dickie, who joined Durrell last very happy with putting the ‘zoo’ back into autumn, is coming up with fresh and Durrell. We hope our Members, visitors and creative ideas on a daily basis, such other supporters will, too. Let us know what as which species we should add to our you think! CONTENTS 2 WHAT’S IN A NAME? 5 AN EVENING WITH ALASTAIR FOTHERGILL & SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH 6 THE DREAM BEHIND THE DURRELLS 8 IN FOCUS: THE RERE 12 NEWS 14 THE SCIENCE OF SAVING SPECIES 15 RESTORING THE RED-BILLED CHOUGH TO JERSEY 16 AMPHIBIANS CAN THRIVE IN A GREEN, CLEAN WORLD 18 RADIO TRACKING 20 SMALL CHANGES THAT MAKE A BIG IMPACT 22 MADAGASCAR - THE BANDRO FESTIVAL 24 SAFE UPDATE 26 DODO DISPATCH 30 BE INSPIRED 32 FEEDING TIME DURRELL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST is a member of the Association of Jersey Charities, membership number 69. PATRON HRH The Princess Royal FOUNDER Gerald Durrell, OBE, LHD HONORARY DIRECTOR Lee Durrell, MBE, PhD DURRELL WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TRUST - UK is registered in England and Wales. A charitable company limited by guarantee. REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER 1121989 REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER 6448493 REGISTERED OFFICE c/o Intertrust Corporate Services (UK) Limited, 35 Great St. Helen’s, London EC3A 6AP PHOTO AND ILLUSTRATION CREDITS Juan Pablo Bravo,Nik Cole, Elizabeth Corry, Jeff Dawson, Daniel Drakes, Estate of Gerald Durrell, Tim Flach www.timflach.com, Robin Hoskyns www.robinhoskyns.co.uk, Craig Jones www.craigjoneswildlifephotography.co.uk, Tiffany Lang, Dean Maryon www.deanmaryon.com, Rafael Garcia Motta, Lizzie Noble, Inaki Relanzon, John Rodgers www.johnrogersphoto.com, Toby Ross, Colin Stevenson, Lance Woolaver and Charlie Wylie www.wylie.je COVER IMAGE Boophis reticulatus, Madagascar 2015. Robin Hoskyns www.robinhoskyns.co.uk SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | WILD LIFE 1 DR LESLEY DICKIE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER WHAT’S IN A NAME? TO BE OR NOT TO BE A ‘ZOO’? THAT IS THE QUESTION Actually, that was not the real question. A zoo is what we have always been. However, in the mid-2000’s we started to get nervous about calling ourselves a zoo. Factors such as a possible poor response from animal rights activists, who tar all zoological parks with the same brush, were worried about. In 2006, we changed from Jersey Zoo to Durrell Wildlife Park, with the larger Trust having already changed from the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust to the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust sometime before. We had therefore removed every mention of the island of Jersey from our name, be it at Trust or site level. This followed a rebrand, when the Dodo logo was introduced. I had misgivings about us not being to say descriptive, word they naturally called a zoo from day one when I wanted to use. Looking even closer to began as the Chief Executive Officer home, it seemed that the staff were in October 2016. It also proved to be also overwhelmingly in favour of using confusing for visitors. In my first week the word zoo, but that they had also at Durrell, I was walking around the been instructed that, somehow, zoo site, talking to visitors and staff and was an inappropriate word to use. seeing the animals. I was in the bat This is nonsensical for a number of house when I got talking to a couple reasons, the first being most obvious, who were having a great day. They in that we run a zoo; we are, by all explained how much they liked the legal and non-legal definitions, a zoo; bat house, how much it had changed we are members of many different what they thought of bats – not scary, zoo organisations (British and Irish but beautiful and important – and Association of Zoos and Aquariums, how much they loved visiting the zoo, European Association of Zoos and and how much they would learn with Aquaria and Species 360); we rely every visit. Then they stopped, looked upon partner zoos for the animals we embarrassed, and apologised for care for here in Jersey, animals that using the word zoo. are part of cooperative breeding This was not the only time in that programmes. Partner zoos that have first week that people said to me, ‘oh over the years, looked at Durrell’s but we are not meant to call it a zoo, ‘we are not a zoo’ stance with either are we?’ It seems we had drummed sadness, amusement or to some into our visitors ‘don’t call us a zoo!’ extent, annoyance. By implying to This struck me as a bizarre situation, the public that zoo is a bad word we where people who were our core were tacitly undermining our closest supporters, enthusiastic proponents colleagues at other facilities – many of our work, were embarrassed or of whom we collaborate with in confused about what word to use. I fieldwork, science and training, in reassured everyone I met where this addition to breeding programmes. arose, that it’s absolutely fine to say In the past, several zoos changed zoo, because that is exactly what we their name for fear of unwanted are. The response was one of relief attention from animal rights groups. that they could use, without fear of They are changing back – institutions censure, the most comfortable, not like the Bronx, and Whipsnade. 2 WILD LIFE | SPRING/SUMMER 2017 JERSEY ZOO Paignton did not entirely drop the word zoo, but is now putting it more front and centre. Colleagues at these institutions have indicated to me that they felt dropping the word zoo had been or would have been a mistake, and we believe we have nothing to fear from animal rights groups – we are strong enough to deal with them. It is on our work and standards that we will be judged by the outside world. I had also been canvassing opinion. A change back to including the word zoo in our visitor site name was supported by both the Minister of Tourism and Visit Jersey (the States of Jersey organisation that promotes tourism to the island). From focus groups conducted on the island we also found that despite our road and entrance signs residents on the island were confused about the previous name. Was it just Durrell, Durrell Wildlife or Durrell Wildlife Park? If that name was not resonating, a name change to something more recognisable was clearly needed. Whilst I believe, we should be proud of being a zoo and the amazing work we do, it is also an issue of visibility. Tourism to Jersey has significantly declined and affected our income. We know from a recent survey that about 1/3 of visitors leaving the island via the airport had never heard of Durrell or that there was a zoo they could visit. We are looking at increasing our visibility at the airport and harbour for arrivals but we believe the word zoo on its own would make us more visible to potential visitors. We are not doing ourselves any favours by the refusal to use the word zoo and if we alienate potential visitors. On the 6th of March 2017, we formally announced that from the 3rd of April 2017, we would revert to calling ourselves Jersey Zoo. Just as the Zoological Society of London has London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo, and the North of England Zoological Society has Chester Zoo, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust will have Jersey Zoo and we are proud of being a fabulous small zoo that punches above its weight in conservation and beyond. SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | WILD LIFE 3 SECTION TITLE No added sugar 4 WILD LIFE | SPRING/SUMMER 2017 ed AN EVENING WITH No add sugar ALASTAIR FOTHERGILL & SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH Mark Ridgway is head of Biology and housemaster of Druries at Harrow school.