David Livingstone Birthplace’s Conservation Resources

Conservation means protecting things we find in nature – this includes plants, animals and minerals which we might find in the ground. All of these are really important, but we are going to look at animal conservation as this is something that David Livingstone was interested in too!

When he was travelling across the continent of Africa, David saw lots of wonderful things that he had never seen before. This included animals such as elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, monkeys, and many more.

He was amazed by these animals and watched them for hours, writing about them and drawing pictures. Sometimes the animals were friendly but at times David had to be careful because they could be dangerous as well. David was attacked by a lion very soon after arriving in Africa and fell sick many times from being bitten by mosquitos.

When people around the world began to hear of David’s stories of African animals, many followed in his footsteps to see them too. However, some people went to Africa to hunt these great animals. Hunting is still a problem today and many animals are also in danger because their homes are being destroyed.