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The Nature Conservancy in Africa - Conservation in Africa

The Nature Conservancy in Asia Pacific - Conservation in Asia-Pacific

The Nature Conservancy in the Caribbean - Conservation in the Caribbean

The Nature Conservancy in Central America - Conservation in Central America

The Nature Conservancy in North America - Conservation in North America

The Nature Conservancy in the United States - Conservation in the United States

The Nature Conservancy in South America - Conservation in South America
 

Female lion, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

Female lion at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania © Gwynn Crichton/TNC

Lions are "gorgeous, powerful cats, aloof and relaxed."

Simba campsite in the Ngorongoro Crater

Simba campsite in the Ngorongoro Crater © Gwynn Crichton/TNC

Zebras having a mid-day drink in the Seronera River, Tanzania

Zebras having a mid-day drink in the Seronera River, Tanzania 
© Gwynn Crichton/TNC

 

Postcards From the Field

June 19, 2006: Simba Campsite, Ngorongoro Crater

From the rim we have a breathtaking view of the Ngorongoro Crater, a vast misty plain with a beautiful soda lake and winding rivers. My first blush upon descending into the crater was a pride of about 10 lions strolling across the road to sleep after their morning hunt. They were gorgeous, powerful cats, aloof and relaxed. I was delighted to see a black rhino feeding with her calf — incredible to see the young of one of the most endangered species in Africa.

June 23, 2006: Seronera Campsite, the Serengeti


As you descend into the Serengeti from Ngorongoro, lush highland forest gives way to dry, rocky expanses of prickly acacia tress and, finally, seemingly endless undulating plains.

I keep thinking of the young Jane Goodall digging for fossils with the Leakey family in the Serengeti’s Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the mysteries of evolution. Africa and the
Serengeti are truly the cradle of human life.

Today we are packing up and heading out. Africa can ruin you! Virginia’s birds and freshwater mussels are wonderful, but elephants, giraffes, lions, zebras, hippos, cheetahs and leopards are tough competition. We have driven out nearly all of North America’s large animals, and I have never fully appreciated that tragedy until now.

June 24, 2006: Kilimanjaro Airport

I am very grateful for this experience and more grateful than ever for the relative ease, security and wealth of my life in the U.S. Seeing what the natural world might have been has renewed my commitment to conserving what is left. Everyone should have the opportunity to see the African motherland to appreciate how much we still have and how much we have lost since the human story began to unfold on the plains of the Serengeti many millennia ago.

Gwynn Crichton


 

Africa Resources

  • Learn more about the Conservancy's work in Africa. 

  • Read about our Africa program in the Spring 2007 issue of Nature Conservancy magazine.

  • Go along with our lead scientist, Sanjayan, as he details his journeys to Kenya in the debut of Wild Life, his new online column.