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Clinton Keeling
British zoologist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Clinton Harry Keeling FZS (3 January 1932 – 2007) was a British zoologist, zookeeper, and writer. A Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, Keeling founded the Bartlett Society in 1984 to study historical methods of keeping wild animals.[1]
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Biography
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Clinton Harry Keeling[2] was born to Arthur and Alice Louise Keeling (née Lent) in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, on 3 January 1932.[3][4] In 1954, Keeling and his wife Jill founded Ashover Zoological Garden[a] (also known as Pan's Zoological and Botanical Gardens) at Hill Top House – Jill's family home in Ashover, Derbyshire.[6][5][7][8][9] The zoo opened at Easter 1955, and had approximately 250 animals including the bear used in the TV advertisements for Sugar Puffs.[9] One year the bear escaped from its captivity, and was recaptured after being seen by a nearby agricultural worker.[9]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a series of books published by Foyles, including Unusual Pets (1959),[10] Cavies (1961),[11] and Mice and Rats (1961).[4] He followed these with a series of Meet the... books published by Harrap throughout the 1960s.[4]
Pan's Garden closed in 1971.[9]
Between 1984 and 2003, Keeling self-published a series of books on long-closed zoos, with titles such as Where the Lion Trod (1984),[12] Where the Crane Danced (1985),[13] Where the Zebu Grazed (1989),[14] Where the Elephant Walked (1991),[15] Where the Macaw Preened (1993),[16] Where the Penguin Plunged (1995).[17] Where the Leopard Lazed (1999),[18] Where the Peacock Screamed (2002),[19] and Where the Camel Strode (2003).[19] A tenth volume, Where the Coati Climbed, was not published.[20] He also wrote books on the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens in Manchester,[21][22][23] Dudley Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Knowsley Safari Park, London Zoo, and Whipsnade Zoo.[20]
On 27 October 1984, Keeling founded the Bartlett Society (named after the 19th-century zoologist Abraham Dee Bartlett) to study historical methods of keeping wild animals.[1]
Keeling was a travelling lecturer on zoology, and gave up to 400 talks per year to schools across the country.[24] He had an interest in cryptozoology and hybrid animals, and his book Ligers, Tigons and Other Hybrid Mammals[25] was published posthumously in 2016.[20] He guest-wrote for publications including BBC Wildlife.[26]
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Personal life
Keeling married Jill Annette Shaw, an English teacher at St George's School, Ascot,[4] on 24 August 1953.[3] They had four children – sons Anthony and Jeremy and daughters Diana and Phoebe.[3] Jeremy, who co-founded Monkey World,[6] described the family as "dysfunctional" and how his parents' naivety caused an "ambivalent approach to safety" at Pan's Garden.[27] He wrote how his father was "a working class man with delusions of grandeur", whose fondness for books was matched only by an "absence of practical aptitude".[27] Clinton and Jill's marriage was not a loving one, and Clinton was reportedly amused by Jeremy's distress when Jill was caught having an affair.[28] Clinton later left Jill for a "rich divorcée", divorced Jill in 1974 and later married Pamela Bailey on 7 February 1979.[28]
In the 1970s, Keeling was described politically as "ex-Conservative" and religiously agnostic.[3] At other times he described himself as a practising Christian. He lived in Shalford, Surrey,[29] and died in 2007.[16][30]
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Publications
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The Bartlett Society credits Keeling with 54 publications:[20]
- Unusual Pets (1958)
- Cavies (1961)
- Mice and Rats as Pets (1961)
- Baby Animals (1962)
- Meet the Mammals (1962)
- Meet the Reptiles (1964)
- Meet the Birds (1968)
- Keeling's Ark (1970)
- Odd Animals (1976)
- Under the Sea (1978)
- The Life and Death of Belle Vue (1983)
- Where the Lion Trod (1984)
- Where the Crane Danced (1985)
- The Ashover Zoological Garden (1986)
- A Beginner's Guide to Keeping Frogs and Lizards (1986)
- Dwarf Hamsters (1987)
- They All Came Into the Ark (1988)
- New Look at Animals (1989)
- They Live at the Castle (1989)
- Where the Zebu Grazed (1989)
- Belle Vue Bygones (1990)
- Whipsnade's War (1990)
- In the Beginning (1991)
- Where the Elephant Walked (1991)
- A Short History of British Reptile Keeping (1992)
- Here, There and Regent's Park (1992)
- The Fragments That Remain (1992)
- What's in a Name? (1993)
- Where the Macaw Preened (1993)
- One Man and His Animals (1994)
- Where the Penguin Plunged (1995)
- Wonderful Year (1995)
- The Chessington Story (1996)
- Remember Belle Vue (1997)
- The Bristol Book (1998)
- Sir Peter's Way (1999)
- Where the Leopard Lazed (1999)
- The Marvel by the Mersey (2000)
- Year of Janus (2000)
- Bits about Birds (2001)
- E Tenebris (2001)
- Skyscrapers and Sealions (2002)
- Where the Peacock Screamed (2002)
- Little Acorns Grow (2003)
- Where the Camel Strode (2003)
- Chessington Notebook (2005)
- Lubetkin's Legacy (2006)
- Ligers, Tigons and Other Hybrid Mammals (2016)
- A New Look at Animals[b]
- Not Gorillas Again![b]
- A Young Person's Guide to Animal Names[b]
- The Changing Land[b]
- 101 Questions Answered about Animals[b]
- Shopping Safari[b]
Footnotes
- Keeling reportedly disliked the abbreviation "zoo"[5]
References
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