Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 April 2009
The ancient volcanic crater of Ngorongoro in Tanzania, 10 miles across and 2,000 feet deep, is one of the show places of East African wildlife. Formerly a part of the great Serengeti National Park, it was separated in 1959 on the recommendation of a Government Committee of Enquiry, and, together with the Eastern Serengeti, established as a Conservation Area with a total area of 3,200 square miles. This followed Professor Pearsall's ecological survey of the Serengeti in 1956, financed by the FPS, the report of which was published in ORYX, August 1957. In this article the retiring Conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area describes how, helped by money from the British Government, Ngorongoro has developed in five years from “a doubtful starter” to one of the successes of East African conservation. Members of the FPS East African tour will visit the Crater in February.