Catch me a Colobus : The Beef Mine
(1966)
In the depths of Sierra Leone's jungle, wildlife lover, leading conservationist and award-winning author, Gerald Durrell launches a full-scale collecting trip for his Jersey Zoo. The first of six episodes in the Catch me a Colobus series, The Beef Mine charts the arrival of Durrell's team in this remote and varied land, watching as they set up camp, enlist help from locals and capture their first specimens.
Accompanied by award-winning BBC producer Chris Parsons, Durrell makes his ground camp in a deserted chrome mine, surrounded by a wealth of animal life. Protected red-and-black and black-and-white colobus monkeys scamper freely in the surrounding trees and the excitement is palpable as local hunters arrive with the first 'beef' - a small spot nosed monkey.
Far from a glamourous travelogue, the production offers an interesting insight into the highs and lows of a large-scale collecting expedition, covering both the menial tasks and the exciting animal rescues. Nowadays, with attitudes towards zoo collecting trips firmly changed, Catch me a Colobus is an intriguing historical account of this out-dated practice.
An entertaining and unique account of day-to-day life during this mammoth trip, The Beef Mine examines not only the personalities of the local animals but also those of the intriguing species that attempts to trap them.
Gerald Durrell
