born in amanzimtoti, kwazulu-natal, pooley was a keen ornithologist as a youth. he began his training as a game ranger for the (then) natal parks board in maputaland (now northern kwazulu-natal, also formerly known as tongaland) in 1957, receiving much of his training as a naturalist from zulu and thonga game guards. the guards showed him a crocodile egg and asked him to identify which bird had laid it, to general amusement, which started his interest in crocodiles. his pioneering work on crocodile ecology and conservation is recorded, with his customary humour, in his first book, "discoveries of a crocodile man" (collins, 1982).