Born in Nairobi (Kenya) in the early 60's and inspired by my father, I became fascinated with the natural world (and elephants in particular) from a young age. Dung beetles collected horse manure from the rose beds, hedgehogs snuffled through the garden, a cacophony of croaking rung out from a neighbour’s pond, crowned cranes trumpeted as they flew over the garden and baboons used the school's football goalposts as a climbing frame. I must be one of very few school kids, who on the way to school, saw a cheetah make a kill. As the school bus travelled along the boundary fence of Nairobi National Park a cheetah sped into a clearing in pursuit of a mother Thompson’s gazelle and her young one. The mother made her escape but its calf was less fortunate. I was spell-bound by the natural world all around me.