Savanna
In the savanna, you can enjoy so much of nature’s beauty. Here, there are rolling hills of grasslands, with scattered trees. It offers some of the most breathtaking scenes that you can imagine.
Location:
The Savanna is located mostly in Africa, but also in South America and Australia. The savanna covers about 20% of the earth's land surface.
Climate:
The temperature is warm here year round, which means you’ll need to pack summer time clothing. The temperature ranges from 68°-86° F. The winter is slightly colder than the summer, but only by a few degrees. You’ll also need to pack rain gear, if your trip is during the summertime because it rains a lot more in the summer than in the winter. There is approximately 10 to 30 inches a year in rainfall, most of it being in the summertime.
Wildlife:
The wildlife is absolutely spectacular. You will also come across many exotic plants, such as elephant grass, gum tree eucalyptus and the whistling thorn tree. Many of the plants in the Savanna survive by having long tap roots, trunks that store water or they drop their leaves to conserve water. They save the water they get, because there is sometimes a long period of drought.
Many astonishing animals live here too. The African elephant is amongst them. The elephant’s hard skin and large size makes it very difficult for predators to attack. Another one of the Savanna’s animals is the koala bear. This small bear eats only eucalyptus leaves. They survive by their ability to climb trees quickly, using their long claws, and by camouflaging themselves.
Critical issues:
One of the main critical issues in the Savanna is the lack of rainfall for a large portion of the year. If there was more water, more plants would grow and therefore, more animals would live there. Due to the lack of rain, the plants dry up and die during the winter. This issue leads us into another critical issue, which is wildfire. Due to the lack of rainfall for such a large part of the year, the area is prone to wildfires. Wildfires are very common in these areas and are responsible for killing thousands of plants and animals each year.
Interesting Facts
*Some animals eat foliage off of trees instead of grass so that they don’t have to compete for it.
*Elephants help the environment because their poop fertilizes the soil.
*The dung beetle takes the elephants poop and digs it into the soil, and by doing so, they make the soil richer.