The Overloaded Ark by Gerald Durrell. Short summary

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Darrell describes his journey to the Cameroonian rainforest territory, which lasted about six months. Gerald wanted to catch and bring rare animals to Great Britain.

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Gerald recounts a trip to the rainforests of Cameroon. Darrell did not go to Africa alone — he was accompanied by John Yelland, who specialized in catching birds.

The writer, however, was primarily interested in reptiles as well as mammals. There were several reasons for their trip together. First, Darrell and Yelland wanted to catch the most outlandish animals and then bring them to the territory of Foggy Albion. Second, both of the aforementioned beasts of prey had long desired to visit that continent of Africa that had not yet been culturally influenced by European civilization.

John and Gerald developed a detailed travel plan, and zoological organizations provided them with lists of animals to be captured. Darrell writes that the danger of his work is greatly exaggerated, since only a tenth of the labor goes into finding the right animals, and the rest of the time the specialist is busy keeping the captured animal.