Stel Violaris always dreamt of being a zoologist like his early heroes Gerard Durrell and David Attenborough. Raised on the island of Cyprus, his early enthusiasm for wildlife was given the perfect platform to grow and he graduated top of his Zoology Honours School at Manchester University. However, the financial pressures on a young graduate living in London, coupled with the chronic underfunding of research in the UK put paid to his scientific ambitions within the first year of studying for an Ecotoxicology PhD. Instead he redirected his energies into a successful career in Finance spanning 8 years, working for blue-chip organisations in the City of London and qualifying as a Certified Management Accountant. In 2010, having not forgotten his dream of working with animals, Stel and his wife Gail (also a biologist) found the courage to break free of the shackles of the corporate world and left the comfort and security of London life and a regular income to start an ostrich farm in Bulgaria. With a whole lot of hard work and passion, and plenty of help from volunteers from around the world, the farm has grown to be one of the largest in Eastern Europe with exports throughout the EU and a has put their small village on the map as a tourist destination.