A Bevy of Beasts

Having spent a childhood of animal collecting, to the dismay of his family and his older brother, Lawrence, Gerald Durrell applied for a job at England's Whipsnade Zoo, then one of the first "open" zoos, designed with breeding and preservation as much in mind as the amusement of the visitors. Durrell soon found himself beginning a new career with the discovery (in the person of a large and ill-tempered male named Albert) that not all lions are noble, and that almost everything written about them is untrue. He then goes on to make the acquaintance of a remarkably friendly tiger named Paul, a polar bear whose paw needs doctoring, a raccoon-like dog, a wombat named Peter, Pere David's deer... and many more. [Excerpted from the book jacket.]