PAUL Masterton was appointed chief executive of Durrell Wildlife in 2008.
Previously, he was president of the European arm of the US printing and communications company R R Donnelley.
‘I AM,’ said Mr Masterton, ‘a recovering businessman and I am delighted to be a
representative of the natural world today.’
He then analysed Jersey chances of survival in terms of the sort of animal the Island should emulate.
It could be a tropical mud skipper, adopting the keep-your-head-down approach, a fat, happy but doomed dodo, a whale too large to be threatened or a watchful meercat supported by a clan of similar-minded allies.
Later, during the question and answer session, Mr Masterton agreed that Guernsey could be an ally, adding: ‘Inter-island rivalry should be left on the sports field.’
The Island could also choose specialisation, following a risky strategy analogous to a Madagascan hawk moth which can feed only on an orchid with foot-long blooms, which are increasingly difficult to find because of climate change. The adaptive approach was also possible, with inspiration coming from the red river hog, a generalist which can eat almost anything.
There were also survival lessons to be learned from animals whose strategies depend on speed – but was Jersey to be a charging rhino with a hopeless turning circle, a cheetah that can’t be caught until it runs out of steam after a quarter-mile dash, or a wild horse with stamina and enough pace to stay out of trouble?
Mr Masterton also said that there was a salutary lesson in the case of the Yangtze dolphin, which is already likely to be extinct. While people were talking about how to save the creature, the opportunity to do so by transferring specimens to lakes next to its home in the great Chinese river was lost.
Finally, he chose the mountain lion as a potential model for the Island. It was fast, agile, adaptive, far-sighted, capable of forming alliances and powerful. It would, in fact, be the ideal animal template – if only it were a little more friendly.
