Somewhere between a childhood reading Gerald Durrell books, and life as a young man watching David Attenborough documentaries, I began to work with Don Merton. I joined the Wildlife Service as a trainee, and the first of many field expeditions with Don was a biological survey of the Mercury Islands. Don soon became a mentor and a friend. On every trip he taught by example, and worked harder than the rest of us. Until I met Don, my experience of conservation had been limited to a few desperate tales of rare species, with invariably sad endings. Don changed that. He turned conservation into one great practical adventure. We were part of a solution not a problem.
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