For those who dream of going on a safari, a new program offered at Iowa State will allow them to step out of their comfort zone and into the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa.

Serengeti Genesis, a non-profit organization, was formed by John Bower, ISU professor emeritus of anthropology and William Fischer, a vocational anthropologist and biologist, in 2002. It gives scientists an opportunity to do archaeological research in the park.

“You can be sitting at an archaeological dig and all of a sudden there’s a herd of buffaloes running by or some giraffes trolling through the horizon,” he said.

Fischer said he has been going to Tanzania about every month for the last five years.

“Last season, I believe, we had a pride of lions next to our archaeological dig, and everyone knew their boundaries,” Fischer said. “They come in and the females are like little cats. They start playing with your sweater, they’re a hoot. They smile at you. It’s lots of fun.” “They stay their distance, and if you’re not a zebra, they don’t care about you.”

Fischer also praised the human inhabitants of the area.

“The freedom in Tanzania is like nowhere else. You don’t have a million cars driving through, there’s no paved buildings. It’s wilderness as it has been for millions of years, ” he said. “Tanzanian people are some of the happiest, warmest people in the world. It’s invigorating to see there are places on Earth that people are happy and free.”

Beginning July 22, five individuals are scheduled to join Bower, Fischer and Carl Vondra, retired ISU professor emeritus of geology, on a trip to Africa, where they will separate into two groups — one doing research at an archaeological dig site, to recover stone tools, jewelry and animal bones, and the second working on micro-biological research in Africa to investigate the diversity of microorganisms living under extreme conditions, Fischer said.

Graduate students and alumni from the University of California-Davis are going this summer. Fischer said he hopes next summer’s trip will be open to all people.

“People donate funds to the organization, become participants and pay a fee to join the team,” he said. “Those fees help support the archaeological dig.”

After sediment is recovered, it is described, measured and teams try to interpret how it was deposited and try to determine the environment it existed in, he said.

“The dating [on specimens] should be done soon. We are hopeful that it will pre-date previously known sorts of self-recognition by 25,000 years,” Fischer said. “The earliest known are in Kenya around 45,000 years ago. We hope ours will come in at about 65,000 years ago.”