Two new FZS staff members have started to work with us and we would like to welcome them very cordially in our team!

Donald Boag is our new Head of Finance for the African Regional Office. Donald Boag and his wife Carole are both from UK but have lived for most of their working lives in Africa. Most recently they have been living in a remote part of northern Malawi on a medical research project. Welcome to the ARO Team and the FZS family Donald and Carol!

Charlie Mackie is our new Rhino Man and will be heading the Serengeti Rhino Repatriation Project....

Between countless bouts of malaria, goats running in and out of his office and villagers pleading for his time and support, Dennis somehow managed to balance a career in conservation with his studies.

Dennis Rentsch, Technical Advisor for Serengeti Ecosystem Management Project (SEMP), can now be referred to as Dr. Rentsch, or even daktari, the Swahili word for doctor, after receiving his PhD from the University of Minnesota last week. For the past few years, Dennis has jumped back and forth between the United States and Tanzania – torn between his community...

Grant Hopcraft, who worked for FZS as the Project Leader of the GIS centre in Serengeti, Tanzania, has recently taken on the title “Dr. Grant Hopcraft” after successfully defending his PhD last week from the University of Groningen. His thesis, Ecological implications of food and predation risk for herbivores in the Serengeti, provided plentiful information about the zebra migration within the Serengeti Ecosystem. As part of his defense, Dr. Hopcraft and Tony Sinclaire gave talks at the...

Dar es Salaam has a stunning coastline but is also synonymous for humid climate. It can be difficult to leave the temperate Serengeti to be engulfed in a wave of heat, but at times, meetings and appointments beckon our presence.

Luckily, for the FZS team, on this occasion, we were in for a night of excitement and energy. Myself, along with Gerald Bigurube – Programme Officer, Robert Muir – Programme Manager – FZS/DRC, Felix Borner – FZS Pilot, and Kathryn Doody – Project Leader Mahale, were in attendance at an event organized by FZS together with the...

There is one event in Serengeti that brings awe and wonder every year. It is an event that never ceases, but rather changes its location every day. And though I have witnessed it every year for over two decades, every year it continues to feel like the first time.

There are no words to capture the energy it brings. It is difficult to describe the low rumble that coincides with hooves running and animals grunting. And though pictures hardly do justice, they manage to portray a tiny essence of the magic of the migration.

We feel blessed when they grace us...

Though the landscape in the Serengeti is stunning when it rains, the eruption of life that follows the first rains is great if you happen to be a mongoose, a civet cat or a stork. However, if you happen to be one of the few human residents it might just be a tiff less attractive.
The unfathomable numbers of beetles that suddenly appear from underground, remarkably display the abundance of life here. During the day, their presence is unheard of, but with a drop of rain, they disclose their secret hiding spots.
Researchers have found that the biomass underground...

The parched soil and dead stands of grass that characterised the Serengeti plains last month have turned green overnight. The plains are filled with puddles and the animals are clearly taking a liking to the afternoon thunderstorms. Mornings are mostly mellow but by the afternoon, winds cool the plains and clouds sweep in overhead.

As the showers begin each day, herds of impala with newly born offspring are found frolicking about – as if they are jumping in celebration. Termites spread their wings and fill the air in numbers unimaginable. Beetles crawl out from...

Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of Claudian Kramar, also called Babu (which means Grandfather in Swahili), at our FZS Africa Regional Office (FZS-ARO) in the Serengeti. Babu has been working with Dr. Markus Borner, who is Director of FZS Africa Programme, since 1981. Markus found Babu on Rubondo Island, when he himself was employed by Bernhard Grzimek for leading the FZS project on this island in 1979. Babu was born14. August 1947 in Rwanda and moved to Tanzania in 1965. Markus employed Babu to help him and his wife Monica, later also his two kids, with the household....

The decision of the Tanzanian Government in 2007 to allow additional 4.500 beds in the Serengeti National Park (equivalent to 40-50 additional lodges!) raised serious concerns. In an effort to address this issue the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) sponsored a study conducted by the “Serengeti Tourism Working Group” consisting of Hart Howerton, Professor A.R.E. Sinclaire, HKLM and Research Associates to examine the issues and develop potential models for tourism in the Serengeti Ecosystem. (

From June 15th until 19th the renowned author Alexander McCall Smith (author of “The No.I Ladies Detective Agency” series) and his wife Elizabeth stayed at Seronera Serengeti accommodated by FZS. McCall Smith is the patron of the “Alliance for Rabies Control” (www.rabiescontrol.net) and this visit was used to raise awareness about rabies and the activities of the charity. Alexander McCall Smith visited two communities in the Serengeti ecosystem where he met with families of rabies victims and dog vaccination campaigns were performed. About 500 dogs with their owners...