Zwier Albertus Mangels was born in the Netherlands on 16 November 1948. His father Johannes (Jos) was a leather tanner. His mother was called Adrianna (Sjann). Mangels and his family moved to Australia in 1955 where they settled in South Australia. After about eighteen months in Australia his parents separated. His mother remarried but died of cancer when Mangels was fifteen. He left school at fourteen.

He was one of the pioneering travel advocates of the 1970s, showing the possibility of travelling as a way of life, similar to what Peter Jenkins and william Least Heat Moon had done with their best-selling travel books of the 1970s and 1980s.

Mangels set off in 1971 with friend John Fields on what was supposed to be a one-off trip. It turned into a six-year odyssey through several continents, which they filmed. The resulting film, first shown in Australia in 1977, was a considerable success and Mangels continued to travel through the 1980s, filming all the way. Two more World Safari films were made from this subsequent material.

A companion book to the films, Alby Mangels' World Safari, was published in the 1980s. Lynn Santer authored Mangels's authorised biography Beyond World Safari in 2007. There are also reports that a feature-length Mangels biographical film is in production with multi-awarded Hollywood veteran Producer Paul Mason and in 2010 he was rumoured to have been approached to appear on Dancing with the Stars.