The Grassland (Savanna)

The Grassland (Savanna) is nothing but grass, shrubs and isolated trees. The grasslands can be located between a tropical rain forest and a desert. Unlike the rainforest, the Savanna Grassland happens to not have enough rainfall to support a forest. Savanna’s especially are known to be tropical grasslands and are found on either side of the equator, right on the edges of the more tropical rainforests. Savanna’s are usually warm year round but not desert warm. The two seasons that conflict with each other are long dry, season known as winter and a very wet season, called summer. The only time the grassland is sort of cold or chilly is during the long dry, season known as winter. In winter it is usually about 68 to 78F. During the summer the average rainfall for the Savanna is about 15 to 25 inches of rain. In Africa, this rain begins around May of the year. During all this rainfall, it starts to get humid. The savanna climate has a temperature range of 68 to 86F. In the summer the temperature ranges from 78 to 86F. The temperatures in the savanna do not fluctuate too often and when they happen to change it is a gradual step up not a large change.

The plants that are in the Savanna Grassland are Acacia Senegal, Baobab, Bermuda Grass, Candelabra Tree, Elephant Grass, Gum Tree Eucalyptus, Jackalberry Tree, Jarrah Tree, Kangaroo Paw, Manketti Tree, River Bushwillow, Umbrella Thorn Acacia, And the Whistling Thorn. The animals that are located in the Savanna are African Elephant, African Wild Dog, Black Mamba, Caracal, Chacma Baboon, Egyptian mongoose, Emu, Grant’s Zebra, Koala Bear, Lion, Nigriceps Ants, and the Nile crocodile. The plants that are placed in the savanna are designed to grow in places with droughts so they can still survive. The grasslands have adaptations that keep animals from trying to nibble on them; some grasses are too sharp or bitter tasting for some animals, but not others, to eat. Most animals in the savanna however, have long legs or wings to depart on long migrations. Many burrow underground to avoid the heat or raise their young. The savanna is a perfect place for birds of prey like hawks and buzzards. Animals don’t sweat to lose body heat, so they lose it through panting or through large areas of exposed skin, or ears like an Elephant.

The savanna has a large range of plants and animals. They all depend on each other to keep the environment in balance. There are over 40 different species of hoofed mammals that line on the savannas of Africa. These different herbivores have a wide range of food for carnivores, like lions, leopards, cheetahs, Jackals and hyenas. Each species has its own eating habits, making it possible to live side by side and not be in competition for food. The African Savanna is between latitude 15 degrees north and 30 degrees south, the longitude 15 degrees west and 40 degrees east. The continent where you will find a Grassland savanna is in Africa. The soil is shallow, or in valleys where clay soils become water filled in wet weather. The names of the soils are Lateritic soils, Cracking clays, Red/yellow earths, and lithosols. Life like in the savanna is hard when it comes to water because water is very limited in the savanna.

The African Savanna talks up almost half of the continent, about 5 million sq miles, it covers Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D’ivore, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa. The Savanna is a dry place but also is a humid place when the summer comes around in the middle of the year.