History of the Serengeti

The great zoologist, filmmaker and conservationist Bernhard Grzimek came into the East African scene in the late 1950's. It was a time of great turmoil and uncertainty, as the colonial powers moved out and new nations came into being. The conventional wisdom of the time was that wildlife had no future in the inexperienced hands of its new custodians. Bernhard Grzimek didn't believe that. He was convinced that because wildlife had always played such an important part in Africa's art, folklore and traditions, the African people would continue to preserve it for its own sake as part of their heritage. And he believed that in doing so Africa could make as great a contribution to the world's inventory of culture as the cathedrals of Europe and the antiquities of the Middle East. Continue bellow...

More on Serengeti History

The notable thing in modern African history is not that some greedy individuals are plundering the continent's wildlife - that is the history of every continent. The notable thing is that, despite the enormous array of problems that face them, many of these countries, and particularly Tanzania, are conserving wildlife not because it is profitable for them to do so ... but because they want to. As Bernhard Grzimek said they would.