[6] The 2009 Ngorongoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human settlement and subsistence farming in the Crater, displacing Maasai pastoralists, most of whom had been relocated to Ngorongoro from their ancestral lands [disputed – discuss] to the north when the British colonial government established Serengeti National Park in 1959.

Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge, various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years.

[17][18] The Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 further restricted human use of Ngorongoro Crater and created a legal framework to politically disenfranchise and forcibly displace traditional pastoralists.

These plains also extend to the north into the unprotected Loliondo division and are kept open to wildlife through transhumance pastoralism practiced by the Maasai.

The southern and eastern boundaries are approximately defined by the rim of the East African Rift wall, which also prevents animal migration in these directions.

[citation needed] The Pliocene Ngorongoro volcanic group consists of eight extinct shield volcanoes within the Eyasi half-graben, the eastern boundary marked by the Gregory Rift Western Escarpment.

The caldera is fed by the Munge and Oljoro Nyuki Rivers, while the Ngoitokitok hot springs feed into the Goringop swamp.

There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamuses, elephants, lions, and many others.

Many other small springs can be found around the crater's floor, and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Maasai, especially during times of drought.

[citation needed] The Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa.

[citation needed] It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world and research there has been instrumental in furthering understanding of early human evolution.

Some believe that millions of years ago, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash.

Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity diverted a nearby stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.

[30] Large mammals in the crater include the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli), the local population of which declined from about 108 in 1964–66[31] to 13 in 1993.

[32] Following the monitoring and protection initiatives of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, International Rhino Foundation and World Wildlife Fund,[33] the current total of 55 animals as of 2018 is 55.

[22] The numbers of eland and Thomson's gazelle also have declined while the buffalo population has increased greatly, probably due to the long prevention of fire which favors high-fibrous grasses over shorter, less fibrous types.

[39] Drought in 1961 and rains throughout the 1962 dry season caused a massive build-up of blood-sucking stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) by May 1962.

[40][22][41] The lion population is also influenced to some extent by the takeover of prides by incoming males, which typically kill small cubs.

[30] High demands for natural resources and modernity from an increasing resident human population, as well as the need to promote and manage tourism, are the most pressing current concerns.

Despite the fact that small-scale agriculture is currently illegal, communities are increasingly requesting the resumption of subsistence crop farming to attain food self-sufficiency, escalating tensions between residents and conservation organizations.

The repercussions of this population growth include increased infrastructure, grazing areas, human-wildlife confrontations, and land use conflicts.

Lodge and tented camp developments are frequently well-located, disguised, and appropriately constructed, whereas pastoralist habitation is uncontrolled.

[43] Human-animal conflict occurs whenever livestock is lost to predatory animals and/or depredated by wildlife inside or near a conservation area.

Poverty, food insecurity, increasing human population in the landscape, and limiting resources, on the other hand, are bringing cow and animal interactions closer together, as well as intensifying competition and conflict.

[43] Historically, the traditional Maasai culture has posed challenges for individuals seeking to assume complex managerial roles within their communities.

For example, one senior traditional leader remarked that he sincerely regretted running away from school as a child, and he has almost certainly passed this attitude on to the younger members of his community.

[needs context] As a result, traditionally, the NCAA faced a significant issue in encouraging Maasai villages to use any schools they established.