Gerald Durrell - The aye-aye and I: a rescue mission in Madagascar

THE AYE-AYE AND I Previously published by Harper Collins Ltd 1992 and House of Stratus Ltd 2003

This edition published by Summersdale Publishers Ltd, 2007 Copyright Gerald Durrell 1992
All rights reserved.

The right of Gerald Durrell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Condition of Sale
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher.

Summersdale Publishers Ltd
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Printed and bound in Great Britain.

ISBN: 1-84024-631-6
ISBN 13: 978-1-84024-631-5

For Lee
who has put up with me, is putting up with me and, hopefully,
will go on putting up with me until she has to put me down

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements..................................................................7
Foreword by Lee Durrell..........................................................9
A Word in Advance.................................................................12
1. The Vanishing Lake............................................................17
2. A Flood of Lemurs..............................................................38
3. An Interlude with Yniphora...............................................59
4. Jumping Rats and Kapidolo................................................74
5. The Hunt Begins................................................................98
6. Crystal Country and Beyond...........................................120
7. Verity the Vespertine.........................................................137
8. The Soothsayers Apprentices..........................................162
9. The Arrival of the Aye-aye...............................................179
10. The Flight of the Magic Finger......................................196
Afterword by Tim Wright....................................................216
A Message From the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust....223

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A

ll the principal expedition team members join me in offering most grateful thanks to Channel Television Inc. (Jersey, Channel Islands), and the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust for providing major funding for the expedition, to Wildlife Preservation Trust International and the Toyota Motor Corporation, each of whom donated a Toyota Land Cruiser, and to Air Mauritius for covering the international air travel for the expedition members, the Channel Television team, the animals and the baggage.

Much appreciation must also be expressed to the Government of Madagascar for granting permission for the expedition, particularly to the Direction des Eaux et Forts, and to the Director and Staff of the Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza for the excellent care of the animals before the trip to Jersey.

Without the help, expertise and encouragement so generously provided by many people in Madagascar, the expedition would not have been such a success, and to these people we offer warmest thanks: Roland Albignac, Dennis and Helen Amy, Benjamin Andriamahaja, Mina Andriamasimanana, Alan Hickling, Olivier Langrand, Martin Nicoll, Julien Rabesoa, Mihanta Rakotoarinosy, Georges Rakotonarivo, Raymond Rakotonindrina, Victor-Solo Rakotonirina, Edmond Rakotovao, Guy Ramangason, Joseph Randrianaivoravelona, Celestine Ravaoarinoromanga, Don Reid, Licia Roger, Monsieur and Madame Roland, Eleanor Stirling, Barthlmi Vaohita, Edward and Araminta Whitley, Fran Woods, Lucienne Wilm and all the people of the village of Antanambaobs, especially Marc and Marlin Marcel.

Finally, we are all indebted to the Channel Television team for their hard work, enthusiasm and good cheer, which made the Mananara leg of the expedition such a memorable experience: Captain Bob Evans, Tim Ringsdore, Mickey Tostevin, Graham Tidy, Frank Cvitanovitch and our two brilliant drivers, Tiana and Bruno.
by Lee Durrell

T

he Aye-aye and I was a hugely significant book for Gerry and me in many ways. There was the amazing expedition to Madagascar itself, the subject of the book, and the conservation ideas and activities that the expedition generated were boundless. Add the friendships established and the coincidences and milestones that occurred, and the book truly represents a big chunk of our lives.

First of all, Madagascar already had a special meaning for us. I had experienced this extraordinary country as a student well before I knew about Gerald Durrell. In fact, I had been reading Gerrys brother, Lawrence Durrell, just before I left for Madagascar to begin my PhD research. But I discovered some of Gerrys books on a chance visit to a mission library in a remote part of the south about a year later, and I was hooked!

Gerry, well travelled as he was, had never been to Madagascar, although it is known as a naturalists paradise. When we decided to get married, the Great Red Island was at the top of our list of places to visit, and I had the privilege of introducing Gerry to it in the late seventies.

I hardly need refer here to the expedition itself, as you will have the delightful experience of reading about it in this book. Suffice it to say, it was an exceptional mix of elation and frustration, beautiful landscapes and enchanting animals, nightmares of bureaucracy and worries about health, not only the animals but also our own a true life adventure!

The conservation impacts of the expedition were farreaching and, of course, ongoing conservation is a long-term endeavour. They are neatly summarised in the Afterword by Tim Wright, Senior Mammal Keeper at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. There is, however, a person we met whilst on the expedition who deserves particular mention. Joanna Durbin was a young PhD student who had studied zoology, but who now wanted to study the people in the areas where endangered species live. Gerry took to her immediately, elevating her to the status of boom-boom lady, his description of women who get things done. Joanna eventually became the Trusts Madagascar Programme Director and pioneered our work in community conservation.

There were many milestones passed on the Madagascar trip. It was Gerrys last animal collecting expedition. He was jocular about his aches and pains, but he never got much better, and aside from a cruise up the west coast of South America about two years later, this was to be his final major journey. He reports in the book that while we were in Madagascar, his brother Larry passed away, and although he spends few words on it, the loss weighed heavily on him. Larry had been the first to encourage him to put pen to paper and to champion him as a writer.

Indeed, The Aye-aye and I was Gerrys last book. Rereading it, however, I feel that it is as fresh and vibrant, funny and poignant as any of his writings. And fortunately, Gerrys eloquence about the natural world and its plight is still as fervent, persuasive and relevant to the world today.

I

n the gloom it came along the branches towards me, its round, hypnotic eyes blazing, its spoon-like ears turning to and fro independently like radar dishes, its white whiskers twitching and moving like sensors; its black hands, with their thin, attenuated fingers, the third seeming prodigiously elongated, tapping delicately on the branches as it moved along, like those of a pianist playing a complicated piece by Chopin. It looked like a Walt Disney witchs black cat with a touch of ET thrown in for good measure. If ever a flying saucer came from Mars, you felt that this is what would emerge from it. It was Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky come to life, wiffling through its tulgey wood.