Terri Raines Irwin (née Raines, born July 20, 1964) is an American-Australian conservationist, television personality and author who is the owner of Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland. She is the widow of Steve Irwin. Born in Oregon, she began working for an independent animal rehabilitation center for injured predator mammals at the age of 22 while working for her family's trucking business. While touring wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Australia in 1991, she had a chance meeting with Irwin. The two married in 1992, and went on to co-star in The Crocodile Hunter, their unconventional television nature documentary series and its spin-off series, Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and Crikey! It's the Irwins. They had two children, Bindi and Robert, before Steve's death in 2006 from a stingray injury. Following Steve's death, Terri became a naturalised Australian citizen in 2009. She and her two children continue to operate Australia Zoo. Early life Theresa Penelope Raines was born in Eugene, Oregon, United States, the youngest of three daughters of environmentalist parents, Clarence and Judy Raines. Commenting on her childhood, she said, "My friends and I were truly 'free-range kids.' Summers were spent bicycling around Alton Baker Park or hiking up Spencer Butte in the hopes of catching a glimpse of one of the shy rattlesnakes that sought refuge in the rock escarpments. Winters were spent hoping the Willamette Valley would get snow." Her family owned a long-haul trucking business and, during her childhood, her father constantly brought home injured animals from the highways on which his trucks traveled; this eventually instilled in her an ongoing commitment to saving and rehabilitating wild animals. While working in the family business in 1986, she started a rehabilitation facility called Cougar Country to re-educate and release predator mammals such as foxes, raccoons, bears, bobcats, and cougars back into the wild. Soon she was handling 300 animals each year. Career Terri joined an emergency veterinary hospital in 1989 as a veterinary technician to gain further knowledge on the care and support to all kinds of animals. Her life was very busy, as she was still helping her father run the family business, rehabilitating animals through her Cougar Country, and working at the vet hospital. In addition, she had 15 cats of her own, several birds, and a dog. In 1991, Terri went on a tour of Australia, and while visiting wildlife rehabilitation facilities, she had a