The Aye-Aye and I is the tale of Gerald Durrell's visit to Madagascar, during which time he is able to secure several critically endangered aye-ayes and return them to his captive breeding facility on the island of Jersey. In my opinion, it is the best of his animal-collecting books, and it is the last of that series that Durrell penned. The book seemed to be imbued with more passion for preserving wildlife than any of his other non-fiction works, and ended with tales of his sojourns in Mauritius, and the successes he and his team had had on that island, retrieving endangered birds, and returning them in greater numbers to the wild. It was wholly a diverting book, and I enjoyed it greatly. ( )

I still love Durrell's books, even though it is hard to read the later ones, when he has gotten older and can't attack the animal collecting with quite the same vigor. It's actaully nice to read that, though, that he keeps going even when it becomes physically difficult. ( )

Listened to the audiobook primarily because it was read by Rupert Degas who is seriously good stuff it elevates the book. His timing and pitch are perfect. What might have been a bit old-fashioned humor in print was made fresh and live in voice - Degas is Durrell. The book itself is very good, I learned a lot about Madagascar and travel in a third world country, trying to follow along with Google Maps. The barren muddy hills are still there 30 years later, probably even worse now. I'd like to read something more recent and in-depth, but this peaked my interest for more Madagascar. ( )

collecting trip to Madagascar for rare lemurs and aye-aye

This is a memoir of Durrell's trip to Madagascar to collect the endangered Aye-Aye to start a captive breading program to help save the species. Durrell is a great story teller who describes a trip that involves tortoises, lemurs, flies, and snakes in addition to the elusive Aye-Aye. There is a lot of humor in this book as well as a lot of information about the country of Madagascar. Durrell does a great job of describing the obstacles that endangered animals face in Madagascar. In addition to loss of habitat, the animals must coexist with a population of humans dealing with extreme poverty and whose short term need for food makes it hard to see the bigger picture of sustainability. I would recommend this memoir to anyone with an interested in conservation or in the fauna of Madagascar. ( )