About
J. D. (Doug) Porter developed his love of nature growing up in the piney woods and mangrove swamps of Florida’s Gulf Coast. He nurtured that passion for more than forty years while managing parks, zoos, and museums, and studying wildlife in the Amazon rainforest, the Galápagos Islands, the African savanna, and the Arctic tundra.
He is a zoologist and educator with a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a master’s degree in adult education. Doug combined his experience with animals and his love of historical fiction in his first novel, The Menagerie: A Zoo Story, published in 2012. He continued following one of its characters when he published The Dogcatcher and The Fox in 2020. These novels explore the history of the American zoo and the origins of the animal welfare movement.
When he retired at the end of 2015, Doug began driving a mule wagon for a South Georgia quail hunting operation—a job that gave him time to pursue his interests as an author, newspaper columnist, and freelance writer focused on animals, nature, and the outdoors. During the summer of 2020, he published his memoir, Lessons from the Zoo: Ten Animals That Changed My Life. In 2024, he compiled his newspaper columns into Roaming, Rambling, and Reminiscing: Musings from a South Georgia Mule Wagon. In January 2026, he published The Muleskinner and the King, a historical mystery set in 1936 Atlanta.
He lives in Decatur, Georgia, with his wife, Karen Liebert.