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Gerald Durrell is an English naturalist and writer, best known for writing books about animals. Founder of the Jersey Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Trust, which now bear his name. Born in 1925 in India, where his father served, he was educated at home. In 1939, the family returned to London, where Gerald worked in the Aquarium store and then got a job as a caretaker at the zoo. It was here that he received his first professional training and began to collect a "dossier" containing information about rare and endangered species of animals. Durrell organized three expeditions - two to British Cameroon (1947-1949) and one to British Guiana (1950), spending all his inheritance on them. Left without a livelihood, he began writing books about animals, which became popular. He spent the income from literary work on the continuation of research and the protection of animals.