Since the late 1800s when the Serengeti was first discovered by a group of European missionaries, the ecosystem has been known as a place where a large population of wildlife prospers. Especially, carnivores like lions and herbivores like wildebeests have thrived across generations without threats by humans for million years. Historically, it is also known that the environmental conditions of the Serengeti have been undisturbed for several million years, and the only human impact that the wildlife population has come in contact is the interaction with the traditional African tribes such as the Maasai who have inhabited in the savanna in Tanzania and Kenya. The boundary of the ecosystem is largely defined by the movement of the wildlife population in order to protect its migration pattern that varies over seasons. After the existence of the Serengeti became known to the outside world, the large population of lions attracted European hunters into the region and killing of the animals became a common sight. In order to protect the wildlife population from hunters, hunting has been progressively restricted since the 1937. In 1951, an area of 2,286 km^2 of the ecosystem was first established as a national park and the surrounding areas became part of the national park to protect the corridor for the wildlife's migration. In 1972, the Serengeti National Park became the first areas to be nominated as a world heritage site by UNESCO.
Today, the Serengeti ecosystem encloses an area of approximately 30,000 km^2 including the Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve across Tanzania and Kenya to preserve the biodiversity of the region undisturbed for million years.
