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La selva borracha
Buena parte de la fama y estimación de que goza mundialmente GERALD DURRELL se debe a las amenas y divertidas crónicas que relatan sus frecuentes expediciones a las más diversas partes del globo en busca de especies animales a menudo en peligro de extinción, como «Viaje a Australia, Nueva Zelanda y Malasia» (BT 8074). LA SELVA BORRACHA narra las peripecias del viaje que realizaron el naturalista inglés y su mujer durante seis meses por América del Sur con el objetivo de reunir animales con destino a zoológicos y otras instituciones, aventura que, si bien profesionalmente acabó en un relativo fracaso debido a una serie de circunstancias imprevisibles, fue ocasión suficiente para que sucedieran durante su transcurso los más accidentados e hilarantes episodios. En esta misma Biblioteca: «Un zoológico en mi azotea» (BT 8064), de Gerald Durrell.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
40 people are currently reading
1354 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Durrell
185 books1,711 followersGerald "Gerry" Malcolm Durrell was born in India in 1925. His elder siblings are Lawrence Durrell, Leslie Durrell, and Margaret Durrell. His family settled on Corfu when Gerald was a boy and he spent his time studying its wildlife. He relates these experiences in the trilogy beginning with My Family And Other Animals, and continuing with Birds, Beasts, And Relatives and The Garden Of The Gods. In his books he writes with wry humour and great perception about both the humans and the animals he meets.
On leaving Corfu he returned to England to work on the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper. His adventures there are told with characteristic energy in Beasts In My Belfry. A few years later, Gerald began organising his own animal-collecting expeditions. The first, to the Cameroons, was followed by expeditions to Paraguay, Argentina and Sierra Leone. He recounts these experiences in a number of books, including The Drunken Forest. Gerald also visited many countries while shooting various television series, including An Amateur Naturalist. In 1958 Gerald Durrell realised a lifelong dream when he set up the Jersey Zoological Park, followed a few years later by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust.
Gerald was married twice; Jacquie Durrell (1951-1979), Lee Durrell (1979-1995).
Gerald Durrell's style is exuberant, passionate and acutely observed. He died in 1995.
On leaving Corfu he returned to England to work on the staff of Whipsnade Park as a student keeper. His adventures there are told with characteristic energy in Beasts In My Belfry. A few years later, Gerald began organising his own animal-collecting expeditions. The first, to the Cameroons, was followed by expeditions to Paraguay, Argentina and Sierra Leone. He recounts these experiences in a number of books, including The Drunken Forest. Gerald also visited many countries while shooting various television series, including An Amateur Naturalist. In 1958 Gerald Durrell realised a lifelong dream when he set up the Jersey Zoological Park, followed a few years later by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust.
Gerald was married twice; Jacquie Durrell (1951-1979), Lee Durrell (1979-1995).
Gerald Durrell's style is exuberant, passionate and acutely observed. He died in 1995.
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October 20, 2019
there are three sad books awaiting reviews before this one, but i don't even care, because this one needs to be reviewed right now!! sorry, marguerite duras! let's call this even!!
how great is gerald durrell?? did someone say "very great??" because that is the correct answer. he is very great.
i have been meaning to read him for ages now, especially since i learned that he frequently deflates pompous brother lawrence in his books; in a good-natured brotherly way. and i appreciate lawrence durrell like nobody's business, but if ever someone needed to be taken down a peg... and gerald is a man not afraid to get his hands dirty or bitten by a snake or pecked by a bird which is a perfect contrast to "larry" (sadly almost-unmentioned in this book) with his lavender and lemon palette and his casual intellectual dilettantes basking in the alexandrian air.
gerald is more my kind of man.
this book is great - is this still something that can be done? can i, karen t. brissette, just go off to some relatively remote region and hole up somewhere while the natives happily bring me live specimens of their local fauna?? because i can just see it now: me, sprawled out somewhere in australia, reading their exceptional YA fiction, and waiting for the knock on the door that would indicate that a wombat had been found for me, or a bushbaby. and i would just fan out some fistfuls of cash, gather the fuzzy thing in my arms, and close the door behind us, sealing us away for snuggles and cupcake-time. because i would love to do this, and i envy gerald durrell for his freedom, in 1956, to have animals brought right to him, even though he was in paraguay and not australia, so he mainly got some birds and snakes and stuff. me, i like mammals. he did get some good ones, though:
that one is a bird, true, but he's a pretty cute bird, so i would accept one of him.
this book was so much fun, i laughed aloud at several moments on my subway home, making me look like the crazy one, despite the man in the cowboy hat and duster yelling "it's too loud - all you motherfuckers have to get off at the next stop sheeeeit"
if i was allowed to have a pet hippo, i would have him trample that man.
who will bring me one?
come to my blog!
how great is gerald durrell?? did someone say "very great??" because that is the correct answer. he is very great.
i have been meaning to read him for ages now, especially since i learned that he frequently deflates pompous brother lawrence in his books; in a good-natured brotherly way. and i appreciate lawrence durrell like nobody's business, but if ever someone needed to be taken down a peg... and gerald is a man not afraid to get his hands dirty or bitten by a snake or pecked by a bird which is a perfect contrast to "larry" (sadly almost-unmentioned in this book) with his lavender and lemon palette and his casual intellectual dilettantes basking in the alexandrian air.
gerald is more my kind of man.
this book is great - is this still something that can be done? can i, karen t. brissette, just go off to some relatively remote region and hole up somewhere while the natives happily bring me live specimens of their local fauna?? because i can just see it now: me, sprawled out somewhere in australia, reading their exceptional YA fiction, and waiting for the knock on the door that would indicate that a wombat had been found for me, or a bushbaby. and i would just fan out some fistfuls of cash, gather the fuzzy thing in my arms, and close the door behind us, sealing us away for snuggles and cupcake-time. because i would love to do this, and i envy gerald durrell for his freedom, in 1956, to have animals brought right to him, even though he was in paraguay and not australia, so he mainly got some birds and snakes and stuff. me, i like mammals. he did get some good ones, though:
that one is a bird, true, but he's a pretty cute bird, so i would accept one of him.
this book was so much fun, i laughed aloud at several moments on my subway home, making me look like the crazy one, despite the man in the cowboy hat and duster yelling "it's too loud - all you motherfuckers have to get off at the next stop sheeeeit"
if i was allowed to have a pet hippo, i would have him trample that man.
who will bring me one?
come to my blog!
April 1, 2023
The Drunken Forest, which was first published in 1956, recounts Gerald Durrell's fourth expedition to collect wild animals. This time he travelled to South America - specifically Argentina and Paraguay - during 1954. It is the first time his first wife Jacquie features more in the anecdotes. Apparently the couple had had to elope in 1951, because of opposition to their marriage from her father! It is worth saying that is due in part to the encouragement and assistance from Jacquie, that we have these entertaining accounts to read.
In his introduction Durrell tells us that this particular expedition was unsuccessful. Firstly he arrived in Buenos Aires to collect ducks and geese for the Wildfowl Trust. However he could book neither plane not ship, because of holidaymakers. His second plan was also thwarted, because when he had built up a nice collection of animals in Paraguay there was a political coup and revolution from which they had to flee at a moment's notice. This appalling situation is a long way off at the beginning of the book, however, and Durrell begins to tell the tale in his inimitable jocular style.
As always, a present-day reader comes to these books aware that the general public's knowledge of wildlife is far greater than it would have been in 1956. Some of the species described we may easily see in wildlife parks and so on. But Durrell's descriptions of them in their natural environment is vivid, colourful and sometimes simply breathtaking. A passage describing a dozen or more rhea hurtling through the grass at a rate of knots in a v-shape formation will stay with me for a long time. Or a trail of young rhea chicks sprinting after their mother as she elogated herself, flattening her wings so as to streamline her shape and speed. They bear little relation to the encounters with rhea we are likely to have in wildlife parks, as they haughtily stalk around, or scratch about desultorily in the scrubby earth. (Although one rhea did once startle me by seeming to come out of nowhere and pecking savagely at my camera lens! But that is another story…)
The people Durrell encounters on his travels are often as quirky and interesting as the animals themselves. Being urged by his brother (the writer, Lawrence Durrell) to make sure he contacted Bebita Ferreyra, he described her as,
"the nearest approach to a Greek goddess I had ever seen".
For a lot of the book he is in her debt, as she variously acts as hostess or facilitator, tracking down property where his animals can stay. (This latter proved to be in a very sought after area, much to the surprise of the cool and collected representative of the Embassy, who had despaired of getting anyone to agree.) Bebita both seems both to know everyone, and is able to charm everyone, arranging travels and expeditions, and even, in the end, the purchase of the animals at a cheap price from an animal trader, when Durrell had had to let those he had captured go free.
The early chapters are packed with descriptions of birds. There are scissortails, chimango hawks and the very common ovenbird, whose nests apparently resembled the mud lumps of termites' nests, although their structure proved to be far more intricate. Then there are waders: screamers - like turkeys - grey teal ducks, red shovellers, rosy-bills, black-headed ducks, herons, both glossy and scarlet ibis, black-necked swans and coscoroba swans and flamingos. As he says, a,
"gorgeous banquet of bird life… I sat… in a sort of ornithological stupor, noticing nothing but the glittering of feathered bodies, the splash and wrinkle of smooth water, and the flash of wing."
And from his bedroom window he sat entranced, watching the hummingbirds.
One of the first birds he collected was a group of eight baby burrowing owls and a couple of baby guira cuckoos, which he describes as "fatuous birds" as they seem to have had no fear of anything. Rearing all these birds proves to be a challenging but entertaining experience - at least for the reader! Durrell actually revised his impression that guira cuckoos were not very intelligent, when months later he visited them in London Zoo, and found that not only did they remember him but they,
"flew down to the wire with loud rattles of excitement and pleasure."
Another group of baby birds brought to him were "Chajas" or screamers. The smallest of these they named "Eggbert", and he became a favourite pet, as he seemed so comical with feet far too big for him. The parts where he seems to lose all control over his feet not only made Gerald Durrell laugh until he cried, but I suspect many of his readers too! Eggbert was quite a character. He would only eat spinach and it had to be chewed first before he would touch it… chewed by the long-suffering Jacquie, who disliked spinach for ever afterwards.
Leaving his hairy armadillos and various other animals he had collected in the stately home arranged for him by Bebito, Durrell prepared to leave Buenos Aires for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. He hoped to collect animals in the eastern half, across the river on the plains of Chaco. From then on his landlady was the local madam, Paula.
There are vivid descriptions of the Chaco area, the grassland plains and creatures such as toads, tree-frogs, a rare Budgett's frog - a bit like the "escuerzo" or horned toad he also found there - but which was only identified by the Natural History Museum on his return to England. He spotted coral snakes, lizard, cicadas, the inevitable swarms of mosquitoes and yet more varieties of birds. Durrell estimated the birdlife in Argentina to outnumber all other species by about two to one. The largest were the Brazilian seriemas - a little like a cross between a chicken and a hawk. There were also smaller seriemas and "for blanca" (literally white flower) - the local name for widow tyrants. These flashed white as they fluttered among "palo borracho", the stick that is drunk, so named because of the mixture of bushes and trees growing at odd angles,
Durrell made it known in the area that he wanted "bichos for zoologicos", animals for zoos, and he had brought to him a great variety. The first of these was a type of "peludo" called a "tatu naranja", a three-banded orange armadillo. At unexpected times local people would bring him "bichos" in a variety of containers. Many was the time he would open a basket or sack,
"hoping for the best and trying to remember where the penicillin ointment was,"
and the descriptions of these episodes are very entertaining. He also obviously went in search of animals himself, encountering and capturing many. There were many birds: black-faced ibis, openbill storks, toucans, jacanas, black-headed conures - a sort of green parrot - parakeets, pileated jays, black vultures, "pigmy" owls - one of the smallest owls in the world, jacanas and another spectacular wading bird appropriately given the descriptive name of a "tiger bittern," chaco spiders which covered huge bushes with golden webs, dragonflies, and even the huge snake anaconda, which can grow to three feet.
Although he was an expert naturalist and animal behaviourist, for the purposes of these anecdotes Durrell's descriptions tend to anthropomorphise the animals. Even so, he makes a distinction between the animals he collects and lovingly rears, ensuring they are healthy and strong enough for their journey to the zoos, and those he regards as what he calls "characters in camp". As well as "Eggbert" the screamer, there is "Cai", a douracouli monkey, "Pooh", a crab-eating raccoon, "Foxey", a grey pampas fox, "Lindo", a fawn, "Flap-arse" a rail, or type of small marsh bird, "Dracula" a bare-faced ibis, and a baby giant ant-eater called "Sarah Huggersack", named because predictably she loved hugging a sack of grass if no humans were around.
A bare three weeks before the collecting trip was due to end, as the Chaco winter started, the unbelievable happened. There was a revolution in Asuncion. "Revolutions" with would-be tin pot dictators were so frequent that this one was also treated as a joke for a while. It was only when the radio station began to treat it seriously, that Durrell realised it was a real threat. The police headquarters and the Government were besieged by rebels, who had gained control of the airfield. There seemed no way they could ensure the safety of their animals, or even move them anywhere. Durrell asked an American ranch owner living nearby for advice.
"His advice was simple and straightforward: get out of the country at the first opportunity."
This was a terrible blow, and the episodes where they release their collection of animals are sobering in the extreme and occasionally heart-breaking. Nearly all animals kept in this way become dependent on their "keepers", bonded to a degree, tame, and inevitably reliant for food and shelter. Despite their best efforts the animals would return to camp, which they had learned to be a safe area, sit on top of the cages hoping for food, and occasionally breaking in to sit in the cages. Durrell was even brought yet another animal by a local, a rattlesnake. And that is a very sad story indeed, as it proved impossible to return it to the wild. During a lull in the action, they managed to escape in their neighbour's small plane, accompanied by a handful of the babies and tamest animals who had grown completely dependent on them.
Safely back at Bebita's, there follows one of the most memorable episodes in the book, where Durrell and some "peons" or local labourers film rhea from horseback, capturing one for close-ups by by using "boleadoras" - three balls on a string.
Durrell's eye for the absurd and the humorous in all situations never lets up. This has to be a rare book, where a revolution takes second place to an animal-collecting expedition. Or where escaping for your life seemed to take second place to, for instance, whether there was the correct food for a baby ant-eater on board. The final sections include an hilarious episode when Bebita helped Durrell negotiate at a local bird shop for specimens of some of the birds he had had to let go. Another is when the Buenos Aires correspondent of the "Daily Mirror" attempts to interview Durrell about his escape from the revolution in Paraguay, but ends up hammering nails along with the rest of them, making cages in which to transport the animals back home.
An unsuccessful expedition, yes. At least, it may have seemed unsuccessful to Gerald Durrell compared with what he had hoped to achieve. But it is hardly an unsuccessful account of it. Durrell maintains that,
"Even a failure has a lighter side, and this I have tried to portray in this book."
And in this he succeeds hands down.
In his introduction Durrell tells us that this particular expedition was unsuccessful. Firstly he arrived in Buenos Aires to collect ducks and geese for the Wildfowl Trust. However he could book neither plane not ship, because of holidaymakers. His second plan was also thwarted, because when he had built up a nice collection of animals in Paraguay there was a political coup and revolution from which they had to flee at a moment's notice. This appalling situation is a long way off at the beginning of the book, however, and Durrell begins to tell the tale in his inimitable jocular style.
As always, a present-day reader comes to these books aware that the general public's knowledge of wildlife is far greater than it would have been in 1956. Some of the species described we may easily see in wildlife parks and so on. But Durrell's descriptions of them in their natural environment is vivid, colourful and sometimes simply breathtaking. A passage describing a dozen or more rhea hurtling through the grass at a rate of knots in a v-shape formation will stay with me for a long time. Or a trail of young rhea chicks sprinting after their mother as she elogated herself, flattening her wings so as to streamline her shape and speed. They bear little relation to the encounters with rhea we are likely to have in wildlife parks, as they haughtily stalk around, or scratch about desultorily in the scrubby earth. (Although one rhea did once startle me by seeming to come out of nowhere and pecking savagely at my camera lens! But that is another story…)
The people Durrell encounters on his travels are often as quirky and interesting as the animals themselves. Being urged by his brother (the writer, Lawrence Durrell) to make sure he contacted Bebita Ferreyra, he described her as,
"the nearest approach to a Greek goddess I had ever seen".
For a lot of the book he is in her debt, as she variously acts as hostess or facilitator, tracking down property where his animals can stay. (This latter proved to be in a very sought after area, much to the surprise of the cool and collected representative of the Embassy, who had despaired of getting anyone to agree.) Bebita both seems both to know everyone, and is able to charm everyone, arranging travels and expeditions, and even, in the end, the purchase of the animals at a cheap price from an animal trader, when Durrell had had to let those he had captured go free.
The early chapters are packed with descriptions of birds. There are scissortails, chimango hawks and the very common ovenbird, whose nests apparently resembled the mud lumps of termites' nests, although their structure proved to be far more intricate. Then there are waders: screamers - like turkeys - grey teal ducks, red shovellers, rosy-bills, black-headed ducks, herons, both glossy and scarlet ibis, black-necked swans and coscoroba swans and flamingos. As he says, a,
"gorgeous banquet of bird life… I sat… in a sort of ornithological stupor, noticing nothing but the glittering of feathered bodies, the splash and wrinkle of smooth water, and the flash of wing."
And from his bedroom window he sat entranced, watching the hummingbirds.
One of the first birds he collected was a group of eight baby burrowing owls and a couple of baby guira cuckoos, which he describes as "fatuous birds" as they seem to have had no fear of anything. Rearing all these birds proves to be a challenging but entertaining experience - at least for the reader! Durrell actually revised his impression that guira cuckoos were not very intelligent, when months later he visited them in London Zoo, and found that not only did they remember him but they,
"flew down to the wire with loud rattles of excitement and pleasure."
Another group of baby birds brought to him were "Chajas" or screamers. The smallest of these they named "Eggbert", and he became a favourite pet, as he seemed so comical with feet far too big for him. The parts where he seems to lose all control over his feet not only made Gerald Durrell laugh until he cried, but I suspect many of his readers too! Eggbert was quite a character. He would only eat spinach and it had to be chewed first before he would touch it… chewed by the long-suffering Jacquie, who disliked spinach for ever afterwards.
Leaving his hairy armadillos and various other animals he had collected in the stately home arranged for him by Bebito, Durrell prepared to leave Buenos Aires for Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. He hoped to collect animals in the eastern half, across the river on the plains of Chaco. From then on his landlady was the local madam, Paula.
There are vivid descriptions of the Chaco area, the grassland plains and creatures such as toads, tree-frogs, a rare Budgett's frog - a bit like the "escuerzo" or horned toad he also found there - but which was only identified by the Natural History Museum on his return to England. He spotted coral snakes, lizard, cicadas, the inevitable swarms of mosquitoes and yet more varieties of birds. Durrell estimated the birdlife in Argentina to outnumber all other species by about two to one. The largest were the Brazilian seriemas - a little like a cross between a chicken and a hawk. There were also smaller seriemas and "for blanca" (literally white flower) - the local name for widow tyrants. These flashed white as they fluttered among "palo borracho", the stick that is drunk, so named because of the mixture of bushes and trees growing at odd angles,
Durrell made it known in the area that he wanted "bichos for zoologicos", animals for zoos, and he had brought to him a great variety. The first of these was a type of "peludo" called a "tatu naranja", a three-banded orange armadillo. At unexpected times local people would bring him "bichos" in a variety of containers. Many was the time he would open a basket or sack,
"hoping for the best and trying to remember where the penicillin ointment was,"
and the descriptions of these episodes are very entertaining. He also obviously went in search of animals himself, encountering and capturing many. There were many birds: black-faced ibis, openbill storks, toucans, jacanas, black-headed conures - a sort of green parrot - parakeets, pileated jays, black vultures, "pigmy" owls - one of the smallest owls in the world, jacanas and another spectacular wading bird appropriately given the descriptive name of a "tiger bittern," chaco spiders which covered huge bushes with golden webs, dragonflies, and even the huge snake anaconda, which can grow to three feet.
Although he was an expert naturalist and animal behaviourist, for the purposes of these anecdotes Durrell's descriptions tend to anthropomorphise the animals. Even so, he makes a distinction between the animals he collects and lovingly rears, ensuring they are healthy and strong enough for their journey to the zoos, and those he regards as what he calls "characters in camp". As well as "Eggbert" the screamer, there is "Cai", a douracouli monkey, "Pooh", a crab-eating raccoon, "Foxey", a grey pampas fox, "Lindo", a fawn, "Flap-arse" a rail, or type of small marsh bird, "Dracula" a bare-faced ibis, and a baby giant ant-eater called "Sarah Huggersack", named because predictably she loved hugging a sack of grass if no humans were around.
A bare three weeks before the collecting trip was due to end, as the Chaco winter started, the unbelievable happened. There was a revolution in Asuncion. "Revolutions" with would-be tin pot dictators were so frequent that this one was also treated as a joke for a while. It was only when the radio station began to treat it seriously, that Durrell realised it was a real threat. The police headquarters and the Government were besieged by rebels, who had gained control of the airfield. There seemed no way they could ensure the safety of their animals, or even move them anywhere. Durrell asked an American ranch owner living nearby for advice.
"His advice was simple and straightforward: get out of the country at the first opportunity."
This was a terrible blow, and the episodes where they release their collection of animals are sobering in the extreme and occasionally heart-breaking. Nearly all animals kept in this way become dependent on their "keepers", bonded to a degree, tame, and inevitably reliant for food and shelter. Despite their best efforts the animals would return to camp, which they had learned to be a safe area, sit on top of the cages hoping for food, and occasionally breaking in to sit in the cages. Durrell was even brought yet another animal by a local, a rattlesnake. And that is a very sad story indeed, as it proved impossible to return it to the wild. During a lull in the action, they managed to escape in their neighbour's small plane, accompanied by a handful of the babies and tamest animals who had grown completely dependent on them.
Safely back at Bebita's, there follows one of the most memorable episodes in the book, where Durrell and some "peons" or local labourers film rhea from horseback, capturing one for close-ups by by using "boleadoras" - three balls on a string.
Durrell's eye for the absurd and the humorous in all situations never lets up. This has to be a rare book, where a revolution takes second place to an animal-collecting expedition. Or where escaping for your life seemed to take second place to, for instance, whether there was the correct food for a baby ant-eater on board. The final sections include an hilarious episode when Bebita helped Durrell negotiate at a local bird shop for specimens of some of the birds he had had to let go. Another is when the Buenos Aires correspondent of the "Daily Mirror" attempts to interview Durrell about his escape from the revolution in Paraguay, but ends up hammering nails along with the rest of them, making cages in which to transport the animals back home.
An unsuccessful expedition, yes. At least, it may have seemed unsuccessful to Gerald Durrell compared with what he had hoped to achieve. But it is hardly an unsuccessful account of it. Durrell maintains that,
"Even a failure has a lighter side, and this I have tried to portray in this book."
And in this he succeeds hands down.
July 21, 2025
A not so informative review followed by pictures of animals!
If I had one complaint about this book it wasn't the un-PCness that Durrell sometimes is guilty of, it's the very brief treatment Foxy, the grey pampas fox is given in the book. Maybe because the fox is such a common creature to the English he doesn't get nearly the amount of space in the book as equally charming baby Anteater Sarah Huggersack or the baby crab-eating raccoon Pooh. But there is a very cute drawing of the fox in the book.
I found this book to be very amusing. I have a hard time imagining the two Durrell brothers growing up together. How Gerry collecting animals as a child would have gotten along with Larry who by the one early novel I've read I imagine must have been a pretentious twit is probably quite interesting, and maybe someday I should read My Family and other Animals, to find out more about their sibling relationship.
I have no idea what to really write about this book. I really enjoyed it, but I don't have too much to say about it. People who like anecdotal stories about animals should enjoy this, and if they also like Wodehouse like humor and situations then they will enjoy it all the more. Some of the situations Durrell finds himself in seem a little too strange to be true, and maybe he takes some literary license to make for a more entertaining read, but that's fine, this is a fun little book to read.
Since I have so little to say, here are some pictures.
A grey fox kits!
A young crab-eating raccoon!
baby anteater!
If I had one complaint about this book it wasn't the un-PCness that Durrell sometimes is guilty of, it's the very brief treatment Foxy, the grey pampas fox is given in the book. Maybe because the fox is such a common creature to the English he doesn't get nearly the amount of space in the book as equally charming baby Anteater Sarah Huggersack or the baby crab-eating raccoon Pooh. But there is a very cute drawing of the fox in the book.
I found this book to be very amusing. I have a hard time imagining the two Durrell brothers growing up together. How Gerry collecting animals as a child would have gotten along with Larry who by the one early novel I've read I imagine must have been a pretentious twit is probably quite interesting, and maybe someday I should read My Family and other Animals, to find out more about their sibling relationship.
I have no idea what to really write about this book. I really enjoyed it, but I don't have too much to say about it. People who like anecdotal stories about animals should enjoy this, and if they also like Wodehouse like humor and situations then they will enjoy it all the more. Some of the situations Durrell finds himself in seem a little too strange to be true, and maybe he takes some literary license to make for a more entertaining read, but that's fine, this is a fun little book to read.
Since I have so little to say, here are some pictures.
A grey fox kits!
A young crab-eating raccoon!
baby anteater!
August 26, 2019
This book tells about another one of Durrell's expeditions, this time to South America. Most of the book takes place in Argentina and Paraguay.
As usual, lots of descriptions of animals, their appearance and behavior. Also, plenty of pretty funny situations. It was a light, fun read.
As usual, lots of descriptions of animals, their appearance and behavior. Also, plenty of pretty funny situations. It was a light, fun read.
December 9, 2021
Treća Darelova knjiga ove godine... mada hvatanje divljih životinja za zoološke vrtove danas nije baš ok, Darel uspeva da svoje "hvatačke" doživljaje predstavi sa mnogo humora i sa razumevanjem živog sveta sa kojim dolazi u kontakt.
May 29, 2007
Enough good things can't be said about Gerald Durrell and his amazing (true) animal stories. Touching, clever, interesting, very witty and thoroughly compelling. I have seven of his books already, and my collection is steadily growing.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
September 22, 2016
অরণ্য, পশু পাখি , এদের ধরার ফাঁদ , সেই সাথে প্রকৃতির বর্ণনা । মুগ্ধ হয়ে পড়ার মত একটি বই।
May 22, 2024
Джералд Даръл пътува в Южна Америка, дето, както винаги, среща забавни представители на животинското царство (вкл. и хомо сапиенс).
December 7, 2012
Ever since I first read My family and other animals when I was ten or eleven years old, I have had a soft spot for Gerald Durrell. Some of his books have dated more than others and some now have passages that are excruciatingly politically incorrect, but the passages about the individual animals he collected or observed still thrill me and his droll descriptions of their more ludicrous antics still make me laugh.
I came across a fading copy of this book recently, dived straight in and I could sense the old humorous magic weaving itself around me. The magic is a little threadbare at certain points, there are some words that jar some of the more modern sensibilities that have accumulated over the many years that have elapsed since I first read this book and once or twice I found myself hurrying along as I glimpsed the magician´s stage mechanics, but I still enjoyed the writing and found myself enthralled. It was a shock to realize that the nameless "revolution" in Paraguay that he and his wife escaped from was in fact Alfredo Stroessner´s coup d´état introducing 35 years of one of the worst dictatorship regimes in Latin America.
In order to enjoy Gerald Durrell´s books you have to read him with a certain sense of innocence, share his wild and irrepressible zest for animals, ignore many of the stock rustic characters who innocently bring him a sack containing either an adorable or an extremely vicious new bicho or beef, enjoy slapstick and politely agree not to stare beyond the magnificent dawns or sunsets over drunken or whispering jungles, forests, plains or mountains at real life.
On the face of it, this is an account of a rather unsuccessful and not very well planned expedition to Argentina, that winds up going to the Chaco region of Paraguay as well where they have to abandon most of their collection. As Durrell unabashedly admits in his introductory explanation: "...even a failure has its lighter side, and this I have tried to portray in this book." In the end, his funny descriptions of the clownish antics and the havoc inadvertently caused by orange armadillos or hairy armadillos, Eggbert the screamer, horned toads, Sarah Huggersack the baby giant anteater, Cai the douracouli monkey, Pooh the crab-eating raccoon or horned toads are what stick in your mind, together with Ralph Thompson´s engaging sketches.
I came across a fading copy of this book recently, dived straight in and I could sense the old humorous magic weaving itself around me. The magic is a little threadbare at certain points, there are some words that jar some of the more modern sensibilities that have accumulated over the many years that have elapsed since I first read this book and once or twice I found myself hurrying along as I glimpsed the magician´s stage mechanics, but I still enjoyed the writing and found myself enthralled. It was a shock to realize that the nameless "revolution" in Paraguay that he and his wife escaped from was in fact Alfredo Stroessner´s coup d´état introducing 35 years of one of the worst dictatorship regimes in Latin America.
In order to enjoy Gerald Durrell´s books you have to read him with a certain sense of innocence, share his wild and irrepressible zest for animals, ignore many of the stock rustic characters who innocently bring him a sack containing either an adorable or an extremely vicious new bicho or beef, enjoy slapstick and politely agree not to stare beyond the magnificent dawns or sunsets over drunken or whispering jungles, forests, plains or mountains at real life.
On the face of it, this is an account of a rather unsuccessful and not very well planned expedition to Argentina, that winds up going to the Chaco region of Paraguay as well where they have to abandon most of their collection. As Durrell unabashedly admits in his introductory explanation: "...even a failure has its lighter side, and this I have tried to portray in this book." In the end, his funny descriptions of the clownish antics and the havoc inadvertently caused by orange armadillos or hairy armadillos, Eggbert the screamer, horned toads, Sarah Huggersack the baby giant anteater, Cai the douracouli monkey, Pooh the crab-eating raccoon or horned toads are what stick in your mind, together with Ralph Thompson´s engaging sketches.
October 9, 2014
If animal comedy is a genre then Gerald Durrell is PG woodhouse of the same..
His love for animals comes out vivid and colorful as he puts his encounters with them to paper.. his passion for animals just transforms itself so beautifully in words that it feels like you are watching Animal Planet or National geographic. Though his limited means in resources, technology and mobility he manages to travel the world to describe to us his wonderful adventures with the most vibrant fauna... all his adventures no matter how serious or painful turn out to be comical and funny making you fall in love with the most ugly, difficult and dangerous animals...
He wanders off to various inlands of South America to find the most interesting fauna and collects them like someone collects stamps or coins. He finds some equally funny people and animals who make the adventures even more exciting. From capturing, to feeding, to taming, to homing these animals and birds he enjoys every aspect of it. I love the part especially when he asks his wife to chew the food before feeding it to the animal, just shows the great length they go to take care of the animals. Only one sad incident which put me off was the killing of the rattle snake who attacks them, I think it was unnecessary and they could have just done without it.
The book is about loving animals and you can’t help but fall in love with them. My favorite being the pygmy owl, wish I had one. Even if you are not an animal lover which applies to me too, the comical antics of animals just make you fall in love with them and you want one of each for you to play and hold, even the dangerous ones. I would recommend it to all kids and adults, animal lovers and not so lovers... its a treat to see the colorful fauna through the eyes of Durrell who makes the world look like a zoo with all pretty animals doing peculiar and amusing things to entertain you...
His love for animals comes out vivid and colorful as he puts his encounters with them to paper.. his passion for animals just transforms itself so beautifully in words that it feels like you are watching Animal Planet or National geographic. Though his limited means in resources, technology and mobility he manages to travel the world to describe to us his wonderful adventures with the most vibrant fauna... all his adventures no matter how serious or painful turn out to be comical and funny making you fall in love with the most ugly, difficult and dangerous animals...
He wanders off to various inlands of South America to find the most interesting fauna and collects them like someone collects stamps or coins. He finds some equally funny people and animals who make the adventures even more exciting. From capturing, to feeding, to taming, to homing these animals and birds he enjoys every aspect of it. I love the part especially when he asks his wife to chew the food before feeding it to the animal, just shows the great length they go to take care of the animals. Only one sad incident which put me off was the killing of the rattle snake who attacks them, I think it was unnecessary and they could have just done without it.
The book is about loving animals and you can’t help but fall in love with them. My favorite being the pygmy owl, wish I had one. Even if you are not an animal lover which applies to me too, the comical antics of animals just make you fall in love with them and you want one of each for you to play and hold, even the dangerous ones. I would recommend it to all kids and adults, animal lovers and not so lovers... its a treat to see the colorful fauna through the eyes of Durrell who makes the world look like a zoo with all pretty animals doing peculiar and amusing things to entertain you...
November 28, 2021
ENGLISH: This is the sixth time I've read this book, which tells Durrell's adventures capturing and filming animals in Argentina and Paraguay. A revolution in this country forced him to abandon his animals, which refused to leave, thus falsifying the anthropomorphic theories of animalists.
ESPAÑOL: Esta es la sexta vez que he leído este libro, que cuenta las aventuras de Durrell capturando y filmando animales en Argentina y Paraguay. Una revolución en este país le obligó a abandonar a sus animales, que se negaron a marcharse, desmintiendo las teorías antropomórficas de los animalistas.
ESPAÑOL: Esta es la sexta vez que he leído este libro, que cuenta las aventuras de Durrell capturando y filmando animales en Argentina y Paraguay. Una revolución en este país le obligó a abandonar a sus animales, que se negaron a marcharse, desmintiendo las teorías antropomórficas de los animalistas.
December 31, 2022
The author's fourth book recounting his experiences capturing and transporting wild animals (a practice, as performed by Durrell with the confident self-satisfaction of the colonialist, which has not aged well, but let's not bring modern sensibilities into this). This 1954 expedition takes him to South America, including Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay, where the borracho trees look like wine bottles, giving the book its name. Durrell's genial enthusiasm for his project and his concern for individual creatures is evident in his prose. Durrell never met an animal he couldn't anthropomorphize and name, from Cai the shy monkey to Pooh the escape artist raccoon to Eggbert the baby screamer who falls down and says "wheep." Durrell's colorful and amusing descriptions, from over-confidently letting an angry rattlesnake go to the expressions and dress of Paula, their housekeeper in Paraguay who was also the local madam, bring all his anecdotes to life. Durrell doesn't let himself off easy, either, often casting himself as a figure of fun in the self-effacing was British authors often do. It's not exactly a scientific approach to biology, but it's fun reading.
October 11, 2019
Charming and funny at times. It hasn't aged particularly well though and is certainly a book for its times. Politically incorrect often and a nonchalance regarding keeping animals in small cages and other "collecting" traits annoyed me at times. He obviously cares about animals and writes beautifully about them but still has a superior colonialist view of his right to interfere, as do many authors of similar books. A passage where he spent a few pages pissing off a rattlesnake before deciding to decapitate it because it had become too angry annoyed me. It raises some questions about if books such as this can/should be enjoyed by a more aware 21st century audience. For me it was mixed.
January 18, 2019
"The Argentine pampas and the little-known Chaco territory of Paraguay provide the setting for The Drunken Forest." With Durrell for interpreter, an orange armadillo, or a horned toad, or a crab-eating racoon suddenly disc=overs the ability of not merely to set you laughing but actually to endear itself to you."
~~back cover
The author is getting the hang of this writing business. This book was infested with more sly humor than the previous books, with less description of the mechanics of collecting and more descriptions of escapades and riotous animals. Perhaps it's the addition of his wife that has nudged him toward a chattier style, but whatever it is, it's a good thing.
~~back cover
The author is getting the hang of this writing business. This book was infested with more sly humor than the previous books, with less description of the mechanics of collecting and more descriptions of escapades and riotous animals. Perhaps it's the addition of his wife that has nudged him toward a chattier style, but whatever it is, it's a good thing.
July 27, 2025
Abbandonato a pagina 22 perché da animalista quale sono non sopporto di leggere "che caruccia questa civetta.... scaviamo con una pala nel terreno per trovare il nido, ficchiamo i cuccioli batuffolosi in un sacco e portiamoli in Inghilterra!". E tutto detto con allegria e occhi brillanti.
Si vede proprio la strafottenza e l'arroganza del bianco occidentale che pensa di poter fare tutto quello che vuole nei paesi più poveri. Mi viene il voltastomaco anche se so che il libro è stato scritto nel 1956. Purtroppo queste cose non solo mi fanno arrabbiare, ma mi viene proprio il nervoso.
Si vede proprio la strafottenza e l'arroganza del bianco occidentale che pensa di poter fare tutto quello che vuole nei paesi più poveri. Mi viene il voltastomaco anche se so che il libro è stato scritto nel 1956. Purtroppo queste cose non solo mi fanno arrabbiare, ma mi viene proprio il nervoso.
January 15, 2020
Уморительно и трогательно. Почему-то никогда не читала Даррелла, не думала, что можно так интересно писать о животных. Хотя теперь думаю, почему же, ведь это же жизнь натуралиста, чего там только ни бывает.
В общем, Даррелл прекрасен, хочу ещё.
В общем, Даррелл прекрасен, хочу ещё.
August 29, 2023
Enjoyable read. Perhaps not my favourite genre, but a nice change and really is quite delightful. I kept hearing the voice of Gerald Durrell in the tv series about his family on Corfu - The Durrells. It’s hard not to be infected by his enthusiasm for animals and birds of every sort. I would not have chosen this book but I was glad that my daughter gave it to me. It gave me some happy hours.
January 23, 2025
Actually I couldn’t finish it - it didn’t have the magic of Durrell that I recalled
September 8, 2020
I like the Animas and drewing and that is it
August 2, 2022
I didn't enjoy this book anywhere near as much as Durrell's other books (especially My Family and Other Animals). This book lacks the charm and the characters of his earlier books. Rather than painting a picture of a beautiful environment and filling it with eccentric characters, this book just introduces the reader to a series of animals that Durrell traps in Argentina and Paraguay, before putting them into crates and shipping them back to the UK. Its more of a laundry list of one animal after another, rather than a compelling an interesting journey into a particular setting and the people who live there.
February 4, 2018
I love reading about anyone's passions, even if i don't share them - and not only is Durrell passionate about animals and nature, he writes beautifully descriptive accounts of his adventures and can succintly capture idiosyncratics like no other. Warm and witty without being cheesey, i rate him with james herriot for cosy comforting reads that can make you grin like a loon and laugh out loud more than books which claim to do so. Great to see the illustrations matching the descriptions so well.Loved it.
January 27, 2016
Wonderful story about one of Gerald Durrell's zoo-collecting trips. Every page is funny, fascinating and informative. Like all of his books it is good for all ages without being too sweet for an adult to read and enjoy.
March 2, 2016
Not all GD's books are as funny as the Corfu Trilogy but they are always amiable and present loads of interesting information about the various wildlife and part of the world he was consumed by at the time.
December 30, 2021
Vaimustavalt muhe raamat. Durrell ikka oskab!
March 19, 2024
imelised kirjeldused, huumor ja ajastu vaim parimas Durrelli kastmes.
September 5, 2022
Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec La Forêt Ivre ?
"Je poursuis mon petit chemin vers la nature au travers de différentes lectures et ce récit, qui semblait plein d'humour et réédité par la Table Ronde avec une si jolie couverture, me tendait les bras."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Gerald Durrell était un naturaliste britannique et il nous raconte ici son voyage en Amérique du Sud pour étudier et ramener à Londres différentes espèces d'animaux."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"On m'avait parlé de l'humour de l'auteur et j'ai apprécié sa façon haute en couleur de nous raconter son périple. Il semble n'avoir peur de rien, relate des incidents graves comme s'il s'agissait de broutilles et on se demande vraiment comment lui et sa femme ne sont pas déjà morts cent fois au cours de leurs voyages. Il fait aussi de chaque rencontre un évènement et chaque humain ou animal qui croise sa route devient un héros inoubliable de son récit.
Après, l'époque a bien changé, et dans ce domaine précis, pour le mieux j'espère. J'avoue donc que certains petits détails m'ont gênée, un peu de condescendance envers les locaux par exemple, l'attitude assez typique de l'homme blanc européen des années 50 qui débarque en Amérique du Sud finalement. Et puis, il y a les animaux. Je veux bien entendre que Gerald Durrell les adorait, ça se sent d'ailleurs, et même qu'il en a sûrement sauvé certains mais je n'ai jamais aimé les zoos, je les aime de moins en moins, et j'avais du mal à me projeter quand l'auteur se réjouissait par exemple d'avoir débusquer un nid et raflé tous les petits. J'ai eu beaucoup de peine aussi lorsqu'après avoir appris à des dizaines d'animaux à dépendre de lui pour leur nourriture, il les relâche finalement dans la nature."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Ça reste une petite déception parce que je m'attendais à être plus emportée, et pour les raisons déjà citées. J'aimerais tout de même beaucoup retrouver Gerald Durrell pour me faire une meilleure idée, d'autant que l'on m'a conseillée sa trilogie de Corfou."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
"Je poursuis mon petit chemin vers la nature au travers de différentes lectures et ce récit, qui semblait plein d'humour et réédité par la Table Ronde avec une si jolie couverture, me tendait les bras."
Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Gerald Durrell était un naturaliste britannique et il nous raconte ici son voyage en Amérique du Sud pour étudier et ramener à Londres différentes espèces d'animaux."
Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"On m'avait parlé de l'humour de l'auteur et j'ai apprécié sa façon haute en couleur de nous raconter son périple. Il semble n'avoir peur de rien, relate des incidents graves comme s'il s'agissait de broutilles et on se demande vraiment comment lui et sa femme ne sont pas déjà morts cent fois au cours de leurs voyages. Il fait aussi de chaque rencontre un évènement et chaque humain ou animal qui croise sa route devient un héros inoubliable de son récit.
Après, l'époque a bien changé, et dans ce domaine précis, pour le mieux j'espère. J'avoue donc que certains petits détails m'ont gênée, un peu de condescendance envers les locaux par exemple, l'attitude assez typique de l'homme blanc européen des années 50 qui débarque en Amérique du Sud finalement. Et puis, il y a les animaux. Je veux bien entendre que Gerald Durrell les adorait, ça se sent d'ailleurs, et même qu'il en a sûrement sauvé certains mais je n'ai jamais aimé les zoos, je les aime de moins en moins, et j'avais du mal à me projeter quand l'auteur se réjouissait par exemple d'avoir débusquer un nid et raflé tous les petits. J'ai eu beaucoup de peine aussi lorsqu'après avoir appris à des dizaines d'animaux à dépendre de lui pour leur nourriture, il les relâche finalement dans la nature."
Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Ça reste une petite déception parce que je m'attendais à être plus emportée, et pour les raisons déjà citées. J'aimerais tout de même beaucoup retrouver Gerald Durrell pour me faire une meilleure idée, d'autant que l'on m'a conseillée sa trilogie de Corfou."
http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...
July 23, 2018
This is far from his best work. But as with all of his writings, Gerald has very adroitly managed to enlist himself in my list of favourites. At this point, I believe myself to have reached a stage where I simply refuse to believe that anything churned out by him can be ‘bad’. Maybe that’s just my bias talking, having been conditioned over a period of time to enjoy his every word.
Regardless, his writings seem to have that rare ability to make you laugh out at instances where, if in his position, you could scarcely maintain any semblance of composure. His expedition that forms the crux of this book is not necessarily a successful one. But Durrell manages to frame an interesting account even with this (very) apparent lack of content.And truly, there isn’t much that happens, but his manner of framing seemingly mundane events is out of this world!
For Durrell fans, this is a no-brainer. For folks not yet acquainted, I’d suggest starting with the Corfu Trilogy and then returning to this one.
Regardless, his writings seem to have that rare ability to make you laugh out at instances where, if in his position, you could scarcely maintain any semblance of composure. His expedition that forms the crux of this book is not necessarily a successful one. But Durrell manages to frame an interesting account even with this (very) apparent lack of content.And truly, there isn’t much that happens, but his manner of framing seemingly mundane events is out of this world!
For Durrell fans, this is a no-brainer. For folks not yet acquainted, I’d suggest starting with the Corfu Trilogy and then returning to this one.
December 12, 2023
1954, now travelling with his wife, the author heads to Paraguay and Argentina - a trip with several serious set backs - firstly, bad timing in a day when you couldn't google the best times to plan for a trip; then, even worse for his collecting, a revolution in Paraguay means releasing a significant number of animals that had been collected - a loss of time and funds. It is clear that the author took pride in caring for his creatures so that they would thrive and be safe and secure enough to mate (a sign of a successful conservation program, which he write about in a later book that addresses what a conservation program is).
As always, the author is surrounded by people who want to help him and each book lists the many people who provided time and homes and gardens and other resources to his travels. And, as always, his delight in the animals he sees and describes and those he collects, makes for an enjoyable read.
As always, the author is surrounded by people who want to help him and each book lists the many people who provided time and homes and gardens and other resources to his travels. And, as always, his delight in the animals he sees and describes and those he collects, makes for an enjoyable read.
October 7, 2024
A short read with some awesome drawings, but the book was full of the arrogance of a British man taking whatever he wanted from another country & just happy that things seem to miraculously work out for him.
"The Drunken Forest" recounts the author's adventures during a trip to Argentina and Paraguay, where he explores the unique wildlife and landscapes. With his characteristic humor and charm, Durrell describes his encounters with exotic animals and the local culture, emphasizing the importance of conservation.
Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, zookeeper, and author, best known for his work in wildlife conservation and his founding of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Born in 1925, he developed a passion for animals from a young age, which led him to travel the world and study various species in their natural habitats. Through his engaging writings, Durrell aimed to raise awareness about environmental issues and inspire others to appreciate and protect wildlife.
"The Drunken Forest" recounts the author's adventures during a trip to Argentina and Paraguay, where he explores the unique wildlife and landscapes. With his characteristic humor and charm, Durrell describes his encounters with exotic animals and the local culture, emphasizing the importance of conservation.
Gerald Durrell was a British naturalist, zookeeper, and author, best known for his work in wildlife conservation and his founding of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Born in 1925, he developed a passion for animals from a young age, which led him to travel the world and study various species in their natural habitats. Through his engaging writings, Durrell aimed to raise awareness about environmental issues and inspire others to appreciate and protect wildlife.
September 25, 2017
I veered between enjoying this book and being aghast. The casual racism with indigenous South American and Spanish being described as, variously, dirty, dumb or evil. The horror of collecting animals only to kill or let them go as they couldn't be taken back to England. This book is so much of it's time. Of course here is the light hearted approach you expect from the author of My Family and Other Animals.
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