He spent the last years of the Second World War with his mother and his older brother Rochus on an old farm in Allgäu, which his father had bought in the 1930s.

Peter Molley, the director of the Tanganyikan national parks, suggested that the money would be better spent making a new survey of the number of wild animals and their migration routes so that the borders of the Serengeti could be better established.

[2] During these vast explorations (which also served Michael as a preparation for a university degree), these routes were mapped precisely for the first time, and the number of the animals in their herds could be counted.

("D" stood for Germany, "E" for single engine light aircraft; they could choose the other three letters, and, as they wanted an animal name, they chose "ente", German for "duck".

Michael's survey, basically finished by the time he died, were the reason for the enlargement of the Serengeti National Park.

The main building of the Serengeti Research Institute is named Michael Grzimek's Memorial Laboratory.