Serengeti in Masai means endless plain. Created in 1951, Tanzania’s National Park was listed a UN World Heritage site in 1961. Ahead of his time, Grzimek recognized the importance of protected areas for future generations and wrote, “Large cities continue to proliferate. In the coming decades and centuries, men will not travel to view marvels of engineering, but they will leave the dusty towns in order to behold the last places on earth where God’s creatures are peacefully living. Countries which have preserved such areas will be envied by other nations and visited by streams of tourists. There is a difference between wild animals living a natural life and famous buildings. Palaces can be rebuilt if they are destroyed in wartime, but once the wild animals of the Serengeti are exterminated no power on earth can bring them back.”
