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Lee McGeorge Durrell (née Wilson) (born September 7, 1949) is an American naturalist, author, zookeeper and television presenter, best known for her work at the Jersey Zoological Park in the British Channel Island of Jersey with her late husband Gerald Durrell, and for co-authoring books with him.
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Biography
Lee was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and showed an interest in wildlife as a child. She studied philosophy at Bryn Mawr College near Philadelphia before enrolling in 1971 for a graduate programme at Duke University, to study animal behaviour. She conducted research for her PhD on the calls of mammals and birds in Madagascar. She met Gerald Durrell when he gave a lecture at Duke University in 1977, and married him in 1979.
Lee Durrell moved to Jersey and became involved with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (then the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust). She accompanied Durrell on his last three conservation missions:
She became the honorary director of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust after the death of her husband in 1995. She was instrumental in getting the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust renamed after Gerald Durrell, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Jersey Zoo. She is also a member of various expert groups on conservation, and is fondly called "Mother Tortoise" in certain areas of Madagascar due to her work with the ploughshare tortoise.
In December 2005, Lee Durrell handed over a large collection of dead animals (which had originally been collected and bred by her husband Gerald Durrell) to the National Museums of Scotland to aid genetic research of the critically rare species.
Lee acted as consultant for The Durrells, a 2016 ITV six-part dramatisation of My Family and Other Animals.
Honours
Nactus serpeninsula durrelli or Durrell's night gecko is a Round Island race of Serpent Island night gecko named after Gerald and Lee Durrell for their contribution to saving the gecko and Round Island fauna in general. Mauritius released a stamp depicting Durrell's night gecko.
Lee Durrell was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2011 Birthday Honours.