Terri Irwin was born Terri Raines in Eugene, Oregon in the United States on July 20, 1964. Her family ran a construction business and Terri learned the ropes of managing a large, successful company while still in her teens. By the age of 20, Terri owned her own home and was running the family business.

As a small child, Terri was introduced to the world of wildlife conservation when her father would constantly bring home injured animals from the highways that his trucks traversed. These early experiences instilled in her an ongoing commitment to saving and rehabilitating wild animals. In 1986 she established a wildlife rehabilitation facility called "Cougar Country" to re-educate, rehabilitate and release predatory mammals such as cougars, raccoons, foxes, possums, bears and bobcats. Soon she was caring for more than 300 animals a year.

In 1989 Terri joined an emergency vet hospital as a veterinary technician to gain further valuable knowledge and experience of caring for all different species of animals, both wild and domestic. Between this, running her family business, managing Cougar Country and caring for her own birds, dog and 15 cats, life could not have been busier for this Wildlife Warrior. There was hardly any time for dating — wildlife always came first.

Life took a radical turn for Terri in September of 1991. She decided to take a trip to Australia with a friend. She could never have anticipated the wildlife adventures that were to come when she visited a small roadside zoo called the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, "just out of curiosity," and met and fell in love with the man doing the crocodile demonstration — Steve Irwin.

Terri and Steve were fated to meet. A whirlwind courtship was followed by their wedding in June 1992 and a honeymoon spent in the Australian outback shooting their very first documentary — The Crocodile Hunter.

From the dreams of a small child, Terri has gone on to share her lifelong ideals for wildlife with the world. In stepping up to the challenge of bringing conservation to the global stage, Terri was to leave her beloved Oregon, her family business, her wildlife rehabilitation center, her vet work and all of her much-loved pets behind.

"I knew my future was in Australia with Steve, working to save wildlife."

With the worldwide television success of The Crocodile Hunter on Animal Planet and Discovery Networks, Terri went on to feature alongside Steve in hundreds of hours of programs such as Croc Files and Croc Diaries and worked hard to turn the small "reptile and fauna park" into a multi million-dollar enterprise now called Australia Zoo.

Today, Terri's life revolves around her two children — daughter Bindi Sue and son Robert Clarence as well as overseeing a hugely successful Zoo and carrying on the legacy and wildlife conservation work of her late husband, Steve Irwin.

"My average day is never the same, EVER!" she says. "I'm either running the Zoo, working on a conservation project, or giving a lecture somewhere... I could be taking the kids to classes or I could be doing an interview for television."

Terri is working on several new television and film projects destined for broadcast on Animal Planet, Discovery Kids and The Travel Channel during 2007/8.