Tiger-taming Mice Elves

David Quammen writes in Monster of God (p.372) about Evgeny N Smirnov, chief tiger biologist for the Russian zapovnick:

Smirnov was an elfin man, with large eyeglasses and a warm smile, who had come to this place as a mouse researcher in the 1960’s and gotten interested in tigers without ever losing interest in mice.”