Bring ’em Back Alive 377 human-animal relations, from killing for the triumphal display of the hunter, to capturing to save species from extinction. In written and cinematic forms, the capture narrative combines aspects of both the thrill of pursuit and demonstrations of intimate care. Two animal-collectors-turned-zookeepers stand out as literary and media celebrities of the “Bring ’em Back Alive” genre: Texan Frank Buck (1884-1950) and Englishman Gerald Durrell (1925-1995). Both stressed that capturing an animal alive and preserving its life was more brave, difficult, and ethical than killing it, and the skills needed to do so far superseded those of the hunter, or the explorer-scientist who killed specimens for study. Their memoirs and biographies reveal them to be enthusiastic animal collectors in childhood who later turned their hobbies into a profession. Finding the job fulfilling but financially unviable, both turned to writing about their collecting trips and their resulting books proved popular with both children and adults, and men and women of all social classes. After becoming bestselling writers, each became involved in other forms of media, first radio broadcasts, then television programs and wildlife films, and finally, opening and curating their own zoos— Buck’s Jungleland (1939-1944) on Long Island, and Durrell’s Wildlife Conservation Trust (1959-) on Jersey Island. Frank Buck came from a poor family in Texas and his autobiography, All in a Lifetime, describes the hardships he endured as a young man struggling to survive in a frontier society that was rough, violent, and yet full of opportunities (Buck & Fraser, 1941). G. Durrell (1956a) describes his extended idyllic childhood on Corfu with an indulgent mother, sympathetic mentors and amusingly annoying siblings in his most famous book, My Family and Other Animals. Though both boys were fascinated with the biota around them and collected all the creatures they could find— their formative years, hardscrabble and modestly gentile, respectively, continued to permeate their relations with nature. Although their early careers began with similar passions for animals, their later trajectories were pursued to very different
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