Summary
The lesson is a tribute to animal life. Gerald Durrell, in a hilarious manner, has dealt with a very serious issue—to protect animal species threatened with extinction. Since his childhood, the author was enthralled by creatures which he used to put in matchboxes. At the young age of six, he announced to his mother that he intended to have a zoo of his own and he would give her a cottage in its grounds. During his short career as an animal collector, the author had a wide schooling in keeping animals in the tropics, their illnesses and their peculiar behavior. It was a short lived career since, most dealers crammed twenty creatures into a cage, which the author did not do, so he lost a lot of money.
On the insistence of his elder brother, he started writing and was lucky to make a profit, so he set up his own zoo. In early years, many bizarre happenings occurred. Two half grown chimpanzees arrived at the author’s mother’s door. She remained calm and offered them a large box of chocolates and a tin of biscuits. While they ate, she phoned downstairs and informed about the incident.
The second incident was when a young lad John Hartley tried to clean out Pythogorus—a python and the Python threw its coils around him and bound him. The author tried to free him but the python wound him too. Finally a member of the zoo helped them out. The author’s zoo had over a thousand animals. Out of these, ninety percent were threatened by extinction. Besides the glittering array of reptiles and snakes, there were tortoises, gorillas, a large variety of birds, monkeys, the bibirusa, cheetahs and many more.
The lesson is a tribute to animal life. Gerald Durrell, in a hilarious manner, has dealt with a very serious issue—to protect animal species threatened with extinction. Since his childhood, the author was enthralled by creatures which he used to put in matchboxes. At the young age of six, he announced to his mother that he intended to have a zoo of his own and he would give her a cottage in its grounds. During his short career as an animal collector, the author had a wide schooling in keeping animals in the tropics, their illnesses and their peculiar behavior. It was a short lived career since, most dealers crammed twenty creatures into a cage, which the author did not do, so he lost a lot of money.
On the insistence of his elder brother, he started writing and was lucky to make a profit, so he set up his own zoo. In early years, many bizarre happenings occurred. Two half grown chimpanzees arrived at the author’s mother’s door. She remained calm and offered them a large box of chocolates and a tin of biscuits. While they ate, she phoned downstairs and informed about the incident.
The second incident was when a young lad John Hartley tried to clean out Pythogorus—a python and the Python threw its coils around him and bound him. The author tried to free him but the python wound him too. Finally a member of the zoo helped them out. The author’s zoo had over a thousand animals. Out of these, ninety percent were threatened by extinction. Besides the glittering array of reptiles and snakes, there were tortoises, gorillas, a large variety of birds, monkeys, the bibirusa, cheetahs and many more.
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