First German, Dr. Baumann, to reach Serengeti in 1882, recorded first sightings of Lakes Eyasi, Manyara, and Ndutu. Took 23 days to cross Serengeti.

'Grass, grass, grass, grass and grass. One looks around and sees only grass and sky'

Turner, Myles . . . . went to Tanganyika in 1956 to be Warden in charge of the Western Serengeti. It would be his third career, preceded by one as a game control officer in Kenya and another as a professional hunter.

when Turner and his wife came to the Serengeti, Mallow [sic] was Director of National Parks.

Quain Professor of Botany at the University of London. Engaged in 1956 by Flora and Fauna Preservation Society of England to carry out an ecological survey of the Serengeti, and to produce a report which would resolve the boundary controversy. His report, based an a two month visit to the area in Nov-Dec 1956 in effect formed the scientific basis of the recommendations of the Committee.

Owen, John . . . . Director of National Parks (at the time the colonial administration was relinquishing its control to the independant government of Tanzania). Described as avuncular, soft-spoken, and highly energetic, he was an orchestrator possessed with a vision for the Serengeti.... He raised money and amassed the equipment…

Serengeti Research Institute . . . . established 1966

Tanzania National Parks, with John Owen directing, created the Serengeti Research Institute (SRI) as a base where teams of scientists could unravel the complexities and tune into the cyclic, biological rhythms of this unique ecosystem.

under the leadership of its first scientific director, Dr. Hugh Lamprey, the institute hummed with the comings and goings of a large group of scientists from the United States and Europe.

Croze, Dr. Harvey . . . . . observed the impact of elephants on woodlands

Dr. Michael Norton-Griffiths. . . . . studied the implications of shifts in animal populations, especially wildebeests.

Wildlife research in the Serengeti wound down in the mid 1970's. Tanzania was, by then, in the process of Africanization, a movement to replace expatriates with nationals. This resulted in the premature withdrawal of formidable research expertise and funding for the SRI.

In 1972, swept along in the tide of Africanization, Miles Turner handed over charge of the Serengeti field force to a citizen warden

Tanzania closed its borders with Kenya

Babu, David Stevens . . . . . . . first African Warden of the Serengeti. 1981 for 9 years

Stevens Babu, David . . . . first African Warden of the Serengeti. 1981 for 9 years

Poolman, Gordon . . . . . Colleague of Miles Turner

Hirji, Karim . . . . . Director Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre (SWRC)

Dies

Dr. George Schaller, ... carried out his exemplary studies of lions and their prey

'For over three years in the late 1960's my wife Kay, two small sons, and I made our home in the Serengeti National Park'

Sinclair, Dr. A.R.E. . . . . 2 decades of monitoring populations of wildebeest, buffalo and others

Sinclair, Dr. A.R.E. . . . . with support from the New York Zoological Society, has continued annual monitoring of wildebeests since 1966 in the longest ongoing study ever conducted on a large ungulate population

In 1980, SRI's concept and infrastructure were altered to encompass research stations in several parks and reserves.

Trains teams of Tanzanians in ecological monitoring techniques

Sandy Price, from 1969 until 1987, lived in Kenya, where she was involved in a number of projects. These included the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya Association, which she developed and administered for nine years, and the African Wildlife Foundation where she held the position of Director of African Operations. Upon her return to the United States, Ms. Price worked for Wildlife Conservation International in New York, preparing exhibitions and public outreach programs. She now resides in California.

Chapter: The Sirenket, by Lisa Lindblad

Enkiterunoto, a story of beginnings, a Maasai Genesis Tale, told by Njilalo (neogo ta lelo, those are my words).

Long ago, hounded by drought and death, the Maasai left their land way to the north and migrated south in search of pastures. The skies withheld their rains, the old ones littered the parches route, the women stopped giving birth. It would take a miracle to make the land green again, to brighten the children’s eyes, to bring milk to the women’s breasts. A miracle occurred. Orkitongoi, the orphan child with a tale, appeared amidst these wandering wretched, carrying a gourd of stones and a herding stick. Wherever he struck his stick, water flowed; where he threw his stones, white flowers grew. The land soon blossomed with new grass and flowers, and the cattle were happy.

...

An old man takes his grandson to the foot of Oldoinyo Lengai, the Mountain of God, and says:

'I am old my child, and many days have passed since the time when I wore the headdress of the black-maned lion. We have been forced by Il Meek to leave our best lands; we no longer fight, for the Maasai say, 'Do not look for stolen cattle armed only with a herding stick...'

Old men do not understand changes. My remaining days are few; the future is of little matter to me. I have lived int he manner of my father and his father. And shall I not die as they did? . . . It is not for myself I fear. I say, I shall die as a Maasai, but I have no certainty for my children.

I have brought you to this place that you might view the Mountain of God, that you might know the home of your father’s father. And it is here that I shall tell you all the ways of the people of Maa, that you may never forget them whatever comes.

And the father responds. 'My father, I hear'.

As Edward Hoagland phrased it in another context, the Serengeti should be viewed as 'the best and final future place to make a leisurely traverse or enjoy a camping trip that was not rooted in our century.'

Yearning for hope and thriving on dreams, we find what we seek in Serengeti. At least once in a lifetime every person should make a pilgrimage into the wilderness to dwell on its wonder and discover the idyll of a past now largely gone. If I had to select just one spot on earth, it would be the Serengeti. There dwell the fierce ghosts of our human pasts, there animals seek their destiny, living monuments to a time when we were still wanderers on a prehistoric earth. To witness that calm rythym of life revives our worn souls and recaptures a feeling of belonging to the natural world. No one can return from the Serengeti unchanged, for tawny lions will forever prowl our memory and great herds throng our imagination.