Interesting facts about savannas and deserts. Flora of the savannah. Typical plants of the African savannah: photos, pictures of vegetation

Geographical position, the evenness of the relief contributed to the location of the geographical zones of Africa (equatorial, subequatorial, tropical and subtropical) and natural zones twice on both sides of the equator. With a decrease in moisture north and south of the equator, the vegetation cover becomes more sparse and the vegetation more xerophytic.

In the north, there are many Mediterranean plant species. In the center and in the south, the most ancient representatives of the planet's vegetation have been preserved. Among flowering plants there are up to 9 thousand endemic species. Africa has a rich and diverse wildlife(see fig. 52 on p. 112). Nowhere in the world is there such an accumulation of large animals as in the African savannah. Elephants, giraffes, hippos, rhinos, buffaloes and other animals are found here. Feature fauna - a wealth of predators (lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, hyena dogs, jackals, etc.) and ungulates (tens of species of antelopes). Among the birds there are large ones - ostriches, vultures, marabou, crowned cranes, bustards, hornbills, crocodiles live in the rivers.

Rice. 52. Typical representatives of the animal world of Africa: 1 - elephant; 2 - hippopotamus; 3 - giraffe; 4 - lion; 5 - zebra; 6 - marabou; 7 - gorilla; 8 - crocodile

In the natural zones of Africa there are many animals and plants that are not found on other continents. The African savannas are characterized by the baobab, whose trunk reaches 10 m in diameter, the doom palm, the umbrella acacia, the tallest animal in the world - the giraffe, lions, the secretary bird. The gorilla and chimpanzee apes live in the African equatorial forest (hylaea), pygmy giraffe okapi. The tropical deserts are home to the one-humped dromedary camel, the fennec fox, and the most poisonous snake mamba. Lemurs live only on the island of Madagascar.

Africa is the birthplace of the series cultivated plants: oil palm, cola tree, coffee tree, castor bean, sesame, African millet, watermelon, many indoor flower plants- geraniums, aloe, gladioli, pelargoniums, etc.

Wet zone equatorial forests(giley) occupies 8% of the mainland - the basin of the Congo River and the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. The climate here is humid, equatorial, warm enough. Precipitation falls evenly, more than 2000 mm per year. The soils are red-yellow ferralitic, poor organic matter. A sufficient amount of heat and moisture promotes the development of vegetation. By wealth species composition(about 25,000 species) and areas of African equatorial rainforests are second only to South American equatorial rainforests.

Forests form 4-5 tiers. Giant (up to 70 m) ficuses, oil and wine palms, ceiba, cola tree, and breadfruit grow in the upper tiers. In the lower tiers - bananas, ferns, Liberian coffee tree. Among the vines, the rubber-bearing liana landolphia and the rattan palm liana (up to 200 m in length) are interesting. This is the longest plant in the world. Red, iron, black (ebony) trees have valuable wood. There are many orchids and mosses in the forest.

There are few herbivores in the forests and fewer predators than in other natural areas. Of the ungulates, the pygmy okapi giraffe is characteristic, hiding in dense forest thickets, forest antelopes, water deer, buffalo, and hippopotamus are found. Predators are represented by wild cats, leopards, jackals. Of the rodents, the brush-tailed porcupine and broad-tailed flying squirrels are common. Monkeys, baboons, mandrills are numerous in the forests. great apes represented by 2-3 species of chimpanzees and gorillas.

transition zone between equatorial forests and savannas are subequatorial variable wet forests . They border the humid equatorial forests with a narrow strip. Vegetation gradually changes under the influence of a shortening of the wet period and an intensification of the dry season as one moves away from the equator. Gradually, the equatorial forest turns into a subequatorial, mixed, deciduous-evergreen forest on red ferrallitic soils. The annual precipitation decreases to 650-1300 mm, and the dry season increases to 1-3 months. Distinctive feature these forests - the predominance of trees of the legume family. Trees up to 25 m high shed their leaves during the dry period, a grassy cover forms under them. Subequatorial forests are located on the northern edge of the equatorial rainforests and south of the equator in the Congo Basin.

Rice. 53 African Savannah

Savannah and woodlands occupy large expanses of Africa - the marginal uplifts of the Congo depression, the Sudanese plains, the East African plateau (about 40% of the territory). These are open grassy plains with groves or individual trees (Fig. 53). The zone of savannahs and light forests encircles moist and variable-humid forests from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans and extends northward to 17¨ s. sh. and south to 20¨ S. sh. Savannahs have alternating wet and dry seasons. In the wet season, in the savannah, where the rainy season lasts up to 8-9 months, lush grasses grow up to 2 m high, sometimes up to 5 m. 53. In the African savannah (elephant grass). Among solid sea grasses (grass savannah) individual trees rise: baobabs, umbrella acacia, doum palms, oil palms. During the dry season, the grasses dry up, the leaves on the trees fall off, and the savannah becomes yellow-brown. Under the savannahs are forming special types soils - red and red-brown soils.

Depending on the duration of the wet period, savannahs are wet or tall grass, typical or dry, and deserted.

Wet, or tall grass, savannahs have an insignificant dry period (about 3-4 months), and the annual precipitation is 1500-1000 mm. This is a transitional area from forest vegetation to typical savannah. Soils, like subequatorial forests, - red ferralitic. Among the cereals - elephant grass, bearded man, from trees - baobab, acacia, carob, doom palm, cotton tree (ceiba). Evergreen forests are developed along the river valleys.

Typical savannahs are developed in areas with precipitation of 750-1000 mm, the dry period lasts 5-6 months. In the north, they extend in a continuous strip from Atlantic Ocean to the Ethiopian highlands. In the Southern Hemisphere they occupy the northern part of Angola. Characterized by baobabs, acacias, fan palms, shea tree, cereals are represented by bearded man. Soils are reddish brown.

Deserted savannas have less rainfall (up to 500 mm), the dry season lasts 7-9 months. They have a sparse grass cover, and acacias predominate among shrubs. These savannahs on red-brown soils stretch in a narrow strip from the coast of Mauritania to the Somali peninsula. In the south, they are widely developed in the Kalahari Basin. African savannahs are rich in food resources. There are more than 40 species of herbivorous ungulates here, antelopes are especially numerous (kudu, eland, pygmy antelopes). The largest of them is the wildebeest. Giraffes survived mainly in national parks. Zebras are common in the savannas. In some places they are domesticated and replace horses (not susceptible to tsetse bites). Herbivores are accompanied by numerous predators: lions, cheetahs, leopards, jackals, hyenas. Endangered animals include black and white rhino, African elephant. Numerous birds: African ostriches, guinea fowls, francolins, marabou, weavers, secretary birds, lapwings, herons, pelicans. In terms of the number of species of flora and fauna per unit area, the savannas of Africa are unmatched.

Savannas are relatively favorable for tropical farming. Significant areas of the savannas are plowed up, cotton, peanut, corn, tobacco, sorghum, and rice are cultivated.

North and south of the savannas are tropical semi-deserts and desert occupying 33% of the mainland. The desert zone is distinguished by a very low amount of precipitation (no more than 100 mm per year), and sparse xerophytic vegetation.

Semi-deserts are a transitional area between savannas and tropical deserts where the amount of precipitation does not exceed 250-300 mm. A narrow strip of semi-desert North Africa dwarf-grass (acacia, tamarisk, tough cereals). AT South Africa semi-deserts are developed in the interior of the Kalahari. The southern semi-deserts are characterized by succulents (aloe, spurge, wild watermelons). During the rainy period, irises, lilies, amaryllis bloom.

In North Africa, huge areas with precipitation up to 100 mm are occupied by the Sahara Desert, in South Africa a narrow strip along west coast the Namib Desert extends, to the south is the Kalahari Desert. According to vegetation, the deserts are grass-shrub, shrub and succulent.

The vegetation of the Sahara is represented by individual bunches of cereals and thorny shrubs. From cereals, wild millet is common, from shrubs and semi-shrubs - dwarf saxaul, camel thorn, acacia, jujube, euphorbia, ephedra. Solyanka and wormwood grow on saline soils. Around shotts - tamarisks. For southern deserts succulent plants are characteristic, resembling stones in appearance. In the Namib Desert, a kind of relic plant is common - majestic velvichia (stump plant) - the lowest tree on Earth (up to 50 cm tall with long fleshy leaves 8-9 m long). There are aloe, euphorbia, wild watermelons, bush acacias.

Typical desert soils are gray soils. In those parts of the Sahara where groundwater is close to the surface of the earth, oases are formed (Fig. 54). All is concentrated here economic activity people grow grapes, pomegranate, barley, millet, wheat. The main plant of the oases is the date palm.

Rice. 54. Oasis in the Sahara

Animal world semi-deserts and deserts are poor. In the Sahara, among large animals, antelopes are found, wild cats, fennec fox. Jerboas, gerbils, various reptiles, scorpions, phalanxes live in the sands.

natural area tropical rainforests found on the island of Madagascar and in the Dragon Mountains. It is characterized by ironwood, rubber-nosed and rosewood trees.

The transition zone between tropical deserts and subtropical evergreen forests and shrublands is subtropical semi-deserts and deserted steppes . In Africa, they occupy the interior regions of the Atlas and Cape mountains, the Karoo plateau, and the Libyan-Egyptian coast to 30°N. sh. The vegetation is very sparse. In North Africa, these are cereals, xerophytic trees, shrubs and shrubs, in South Africa - succulents, bulbous, tuberous plants.

Zone subtropical evergreen hardwood forests and shrubs represented on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains and in the west of the Cape Mountains.

The forests of the Atlas Mountains form cork and holm oaks, Aleppo pine, Atlas cedar with an undergrowth of evergreen shrubs. Maquis is widespread - impenetrable thickets of hard-leaved evergreen shrubs and low trees (myrtle, oleander, pistachio, strawberry tree, laurel). Typical brown soils form here.

In the Cape Mountains, vegetation is represented by Cape olive, silver tree, African walnut.

In the extreme southeast of Africa, where the humid subtropical climate, grow lush mixed subtropical forests, represented by evergreen deciduous and conifers with an abundance of epiphytes. Zonal soils subtropical forests are red soils.

The fauna of the northern subtropics is represented by European and African species. In northern subtropical forests inhabit Noble deer, mountain gazelle, mouflon, reed cat, jackals, Algerian fox, wild rabbits, tailless narrow-nosed monkey magot, canaries and eagles are widely represented among birds, and in the south - earthen wolf, jumping antelope, meerkats.

Bibliography

1. Geography grade 8. Tutorial for the 8th grade of institutions of general secondary education with the Russian language of instruction / Edited by Professor P. S. Lopukh - Minsk "Narodnaya Asveta" 2014

There are ten different natural zones on earth and one of them is the savannah zone. The most famous African savannah. Here you will find photos and interesting video about those who live in the savannah. See: "famous animals and plants of the African savannas", as well as about such features of the climate of this natural area as the rainy season and the dry season.

Well, now about everything in order. The earth has 10 different biomes - biological systems with specific types of plants and animals that live in their own climatic region. One of these biomes is the tropical savannah. This climatic community extends throughout the southern hemisphere, in particular in East Africa, southern Brazil and northern australia. Tropical savannahs often transition into deserts or tropical dry forests, and can also be found in tropical grasslands.

Temperature and climate of the savannas. Tropical savannah biomes have two distinct seasons. As a rule, they are called the "winter" season and the "summer" season. These seasons are not accompanied by extreme rise and fall in temperature and are associated with seasonal differences. In fact, all tropical savannahs are located in warm or hot climatic zones, mainly in latitudes from 5 to 10 and from 15 to 20. The annual temperature ranges from 18 degrees to 32 degrees. The rise in temperature is usually very gradual.

Diorama "Africa" ​​(photo by S. V. Leonov). For most people, the word "Africa" ​​is associated primarily with the African savannah.

Winter is the dry season. Winter is the dry season in the biome tropical savannah. This season usually runs from November to April. Savannahs typically receive an average of just four inches of rainfall this season. During most of this time, usually from December to February, rain can be completely absent in the savannahs. This is usually the coolest time of the year. average temperature- about 21 degrees. The dry season is usually heralded severe thunderstorms in October and beyond strong winds, which dry the air and bring dry air masses. During January, at the height of the dry season, fires often occur in the savannas.

The dry season is a period of great migrations.

Summer is the rainy season. The hot humidity of the rainy seasons in the savannas has influenced the fact that this natural area has come to be classified as tropical. heavy rains start in May or June. From May to October, the savannas receive the most rainfall (10 to 30 inches). Moist air rising from the ground collides with the cold atmosphere and rain occurs. In the summer, after lunch, abundant and numerous precipitation falls in the savannahs. The plants and animals of the savannah have adapted to living in semi-aquatic conditions during this time, and the porous soil of the savannah helps rain run off quickly.

The rainy season is definitely best time years in the savannah.

Wherever you look - everywhere is a solid idyll!

Here, I think, comments are superfluous! The baby elephant definitely had a happy childhood.

Seasonal effects. During the summer rainy seasons, dense and lush grasslands grow in the savannah. Many of the inhabitants of the biome breed at this time, as the mother's milk depends on a variety of herbs. During the dry season, many animals migrate, while others continue to feed on grasses in the savannah, and in turn are eaten by carnivores. Savannah plants, with deep roots, fire-resistant bark, and systems to carry water through long dry periods, are specially adapted to survive the dry season.

Giant baobabs on the island of Madagascar.

Savannah soils strongly depend on how long the rainy season is. Red-brown soils are typical for savannahs. They form where the rainy season lasts less than 6 months. Closer to the equatorial forests, it rains for 7-9 months, and red ferralite soils prevail here. On lands close to deserts and semi-deserts, the rainy season can last only 2-3 months, and unproductive soils with a thin layer of humus are formed here.

Video film: "Animal World African savannah". A series of films about nature.

Those who live in the savannah are brave people. Just look how hard it was for Bear Grylls.

A few more photos: savannah animals.

African elephant.

This handsome man's name is Marabu. They live only in Africa and thank God.

Savannas occupy almost 40% of the area of ​​the African continent. They are located around the evergreen equatorial forests.

In the north, the equatorial forests are bordered by the Guinean-Sudanese savannah, which stretches for 5,000 thousand kilometers from the Western shores of the Atlantic Ocean to Eastern Shores Indian Ocean. From Kenya's Tana River, the savannah extends into southern Africa to the Zambezi Valley, then turning west for 2,500 kilometers to the Atlantic coast.

Animal world

The African savanna is a completely unique phenomenon in terms of the diversity of large animals. No other point the globe you will not find such an abundance of wild animals.

Even at the end of the 19th century wild inhabitants the savannas were not threatened. But at the beginning of the 20th century, with the arrival of European colonialists who were armed firearms, the mass shooting of herbivores began. The countless herds that roamed the vast expanses of the animal savannah began to decline sharply. Their numbers have dropped to a minimum.

Compromise between economic activity human and a unique diversity of the animal world was found. And he was embodied in the creation on the territory of the savannas national parks. Numerous predators are found here: lions, cheetahs, hyenas, leopards. From herbivores live zebras, blue wildebeest, gazelles, impalas, huge eland heavyweights. Of the rare antelopes, you can meet oryx and inhabitants of the kudu bush savannah. The real decoration of the African savannas are elephants and giraffes.

Vegetable world

The vegetation cover of these places is rich and varied. The savannah is located in the subequatorial belt, for nine months there is a rainy season, which contributes to the intensive growth of a wide variety of plants.

Baobab, is a typical representative tree world. The trunk wood of this tree is saturated with moisture, which allows the Baobab to survive even during heavy fires during the dry season. A variety of palm trees, mimosa, acacia, and thorny bushes also grow here.

Savannahs and deserts are vast territories of our planet, which differ sharply from each other in flora and fauna and are similar only in a hot climate. Zones of equatorial forests on Earth are replaced by savannahs, they turn into semi-deserts, and already semi-deserts are replaced by deserts - with quicksand and a minimum of vegetation. These territories are of great interest to researchers; many expeditions go there every year to study natural diversity our planet. What are savannas and deserts and how do they differ from steppes temperate zone you will find out on this page

What are savannahs and what plants grow in them

Savannas are grassy plains located between tropical forests and deserts. They differ from the steppes of the temperate zone in that trees and shrubs are found everywhere in them, sometimes single, and sometimes forming entire groves. So the savanna can also be called a forest-steppe. Acacias, baobabs and cereals grow there. There are savannahs in America, where they are called "llanos", and in Africa, and in Asia.

The main feature of the savannas is that the rainy and dry seasons are clearly distinguished here.

As you can see in the photo, the savannas look completely different in different seasons. Both plants and animals have adapted to many months of drought. The leaves of savanna plants are usually narrow, they can be rolled up into a tube, and sometimes covered with a waxy coating. AT dry time year, the vegetation dies down, and numerous animals - zebras, buffaloes, elephants - make long migrations (transitions from one place to another) in search of water and food. And in the rainy season, on the contrary, the savannah is full of life.

Candelabra spurge grows only in Somalia and eastern Ethiopia. Its branches resemble a candelabra, that is, a candlestick for several candles. The tree reaches a height of 10 m, and even elephants find shelter in its shadows.

Speaking of what grows in the savannah, one cannot fail to mention the favorite delicacy of giraffes - acacia. These trees have a broad, flat crown that provides shade for the leaves below, preventing them from drying out. It's pretty tall trees, and their leaves and branches serve as food for the inhabitants of those places. Acacia is very fond of giraffes - the tallest land animals on our planet. With a growth of 6 m, a third of which is the neck, the giraffe finds plant food for itself at a height where it has no competitors. And the long 45-meter tongue allows it to capture the farthest branches.

Savannah perennial grasses have underground shoots, and the roots grow and form a woody tuberous body. It persists in the dry season and produces new shoots as soon as the wet weather sets in.

Interesting facts about deserts and desert plants

Deserts occupy almost a fifth of the land. All of them, except for the Arctic and Antarctic, occur in a hot, dry climate. Not all lands in the deserts are bare and dull. There are also xerophytic plants, the roots, stems and flowers of which are able to extract and conserve water, hide from the merciless sun and catch its life-giving rays. And some of them - ephemera - grow, bloom and fade in just a few weeks under favorable conditions for life.

The desert saxaul plant can be a shrub or a small tree. Its roots go into the ground at 10-11 m. These plants form desert-tree thickets - saxaul forests.

Tamarisk grows along the banks of rivers, but also lives in deserts, salt marshes and sands. This plant is widely used to fix moving sands in forest plantations and in desert and semi-desert zones, especially on saline soils.

Camel's thorn is a thorny shrub. It is helped to successfully exist in the sands by a long root system, going to a depth of 3-4 m, where the water is. And the plant itself rises above the ground by no more than 1 m.

Ephedra is found in dry areas around the world. Its leaves are small, scale-like, which reduces water loss, and its roots are strong and long. It is a poisonous plant, but it has been used for several thousand years to make medicines for asthma and other diseases.

One of the most interesting facts about deserts - the presence of magnificent oases in these seemingly dead territories. An oasis in the desert is a place where The groundwater and form a spring or lake. Birds fly there to drink, and they carry seeds, from which trees, grasses and shrubs later grow. As long as there is water, the oasis also lives. It can be a small pond with a few palm trees or a whole city with rich agricultural land. Thus life flourishes among the sands.

Deserts are not only sandy, but also rocky, and rocky, and saline. Their vegetation serves as food for animals, even large ones like camels. They feed on branches and leaves of saxaul, desert acacia, although the leaves of these plants are small and hard. The main delicacy of the “ship of the desert” is camel thorn. Its branches are prickly and inedible, but the leaves are very juicy and tasty.

Desert plants cacti and their photos

Among the plants of the southern deserts and semi-deserts, cacti stand out. They do not have leaves, but there is a thick stem in which reserves of water and nutrients are created. Such plants are called "succulents". Desert cacti are very diverse: among them there are both large, like trees, and medium, like shrubs, and low, like grasses.

Cacti are native to North and South America and can be found from Canada to Patagonia. Therefore, cacti are a sign of American deserts and semi-deserts. Cacti in the desert differ from other succulents in that they have areoles, that is, modified buds with scales that have turned into thorns and hairs or only thorns.

Pay attention to the photo: cacti in the desert sometimes form real cactus thickets, which are not so easy to get through. In Australia, they even erected a monument to the moth. The fact is that a South American cactus catastrophically bred there in the 1920s, and only a compatriot moth could cope with it.

The plant of the desert cactus saguaro, or giant carnegia, reaches a height of 1.5 m by the age of 20. But it continues to grow, and cacti 7-8 m high have side shoots that look like hands. The cactus has nowhere to hurry, because average duration his life is 75 years, but there are also 150-year-old centenarians. They grow up to 15-20 m, weigh about 10 tons, and 90% of their weight is water. The roots of the saguaro are short, but very tenacious, so that he is not afraid of any hurricanes.

On the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of South America, you can see tree-like cacti reaching a height of 12 m. Surprisingly, these trees are cacti. These are prickly pear, which most often grow as shrubs on the mainland.

The article defines what a savannah is. Described climatic features natural zone, the characteristics of soils, flora and fauna are given.

This information will be useful for schoolchildren and students when preparing for a lesson, report or exam.

What are savannas

Savannahs are vast territories that occupy a significant part of the subequatorial belt, covered with high grassy vegetation and rare trees.

From the description of the natural zone of savannahs and light forests, the main points should be noted:

1. The grass cover is higher than in the steppes, and it is based on hard-leaved grasses.
2. Canopy density is either high or low so that the soil is visible.
3. There may be no trees at all, but there are areas that are almost sparse forest.

Geographical position

Location - subequatorial belt in both the northern and southern hemisphere. The map of natural areas shows that grassy spaces cover almost 40% of the area of ​​Africa, also separate territories are located in Australia, Northeast Asia, and America.

AT South America natural area captures the Brazilian Highlands and the plains of the Orinoco River. In Brazil, the areas are occupied mainly by light forest, in the Orinoco basin woody vegetation almost not. South American savannas wear different names: Brazilian - campos, Venezuelan - llanos.

In Asia, the natural zone occupies separate parts of India, Burma, Ceylon, and Indochina.

In Australia, grassy areas are located in the northeast, characterized by a pronounced dry period.

savanna plants

Vegetable world represented by a high grass cover with separately standing trees and shrubs, small groups of trees.

elephant grass

Most of the plants are hydrophytes; there are also xerophytes adapted to the dry season. In the dry months, grasses burn out, many trees lose their leaves. Grasses stretch up to 3 m, and in the lowlands up to 5 m.

Typical plant species:

• elephant grass;
• oil palm;
• doom palm;
• pandanus;
• baobab - thick tree with a trunk of an unusual shape.

In more humid places, the grass cover becomes lower (up to 1.5 m), supplemented by acacias - trees with a dense spreading crown resembling an umbrella.

For more arid places, thorny semi-savannahs are characteristic. Trees almost the whole year without leaves, the grass carpet is rare, low (up to 1 m).

The flora is represented by low thorny tree species, succulents, cushion shrubs. Some scientists call these areas the African steppe.

Soils

The main ones are red-brown and lateritic soils, characterized by a sufficient content of humus due to the abundant decomposition of grass.

Due to periodic moistening in the soil layers, saturation with metal oxides proceeds actively, therefore, crusts often appear on the surface of the earth.

The seasonality of moisture affects the processes of soil formation. In the wet season, the soil layers are intensively leached, in the dry season, soil solutions rise due to the heating of the earth's surface. Therefore, the accumulation of humus, the blackening of soils, and the formation of chernozems are characteristic of dry savannahs, where the period without precipitation is long.

Relief

On the African continent the zone of savannas and light forests occupies a plateau East Africa, watershed plateaus of the Zambezi, Congo, Limpopo rivers, separate sections of the high plains of the Kalahari.

Savannah in Tanzania

In South America, savannahs are found on the Brazilian and Guiana highlands, the Gran Chaco plain, in the Orinoco basin.

In Australia, in the northeast plains.

Climate and climatic zones

Savannahs are located in the subequatorial climate zone. Two seasons are clearly identified: winter dry and summer wet. annual temperature ranges from 18 to 32°C. Temperature fluctuations are slow, unexpressed.

The dry cool period lasts from November to April. The average temperature is 21°C. The weather is sunny, fires are frequent. No more than 4 inches (100 mm) of precipitation falls.

The dry season is the time for migrations. Huge herds ungulates go in search of food and water, predators rush after them. tree species survive in dry times, thanks to a deep root system and dense refractory bark.

The hot humid period begins in May and lasts until October. Rainfall for the period reaches 10 - 30 inches (250 - 750 mm). Heavy rain falls in the afternoon.

During the rainy season, the life of the savanna is in full swing, the land is reborn after a drought, covered with a lush green carpet.

savanna dwellers

Savannah fauna is unique. Nowhere else on the planet is there such a variety of large ungulates and predatory animals.

Unfortunately, since the beginning of the 20th century wildlife seriously suffers due to the activities of poachers and indefatigable hunters, the laying of roads, the allocation of large areas for cattle breeding and agriculture.

horse antelope

The list of animals that disappeared due to hunting activities includes:

• white-tailed wildebeest;
• horse antelope;
• zebra quagga.

Ungulates

The largest group of savannah ungulates lives in Africa.

The most common:

• blue wildebeest;
• zebras;
• Thompson's gazelles;
• Grant's gazelles;
• impalas;
• Cannes;
• cow antelope;
• swamps;
• giraffes;
• buffaloes;
• warthogs;
• African elephants.

Antelope Kudu

Rare ungulates, found only in reserves, are kudu, oryx.

Black and white rhinos are on the verge of extinction. Their luxurious, as you can see in the photo, horn is a valuable prey for poachers.

In the reserves, great efforts are being made to preserve these animals.

Predators

Predatory animals are as diverse as herbivores.

African leopards

On the African plains are common:

• lions;
• spotted hyenas;
• hyena dogs;
• leopards;
• cheetahs;
• caracals;
• Nile crocodiles.

AT American steppes live:

• jaguars;
• ocelots;
• maned wolves;
• cougars.

Dingo dog

In Australia:

• monitor lizards;
• dingo dogs.

Birds

Diversity African birds amazes, attracts tourists from all over the world.

African ostrich

Baboons coexist with birds in the trees and numerous species monkeys. Flamingos are the decoration of reservoirs.

Nandu ostriches are inhabitants of the Brazilian steppes, emu ostriches are Australian.

Insects

Among insects that eat the green parts of plants, one can note:

• locusts (the most common family);
• bronzovok;
• cicadas;
• Khrushchev;
• caterpillars;
• leaf beetles;
• goldfish;
• stick insects.

Of the processors of dead organic matter, the following are common:

• termites (in savannas, the largest number of termite mounds, often of enormous size);
• crickets;
• worms;
• cockroaches;
• centipedes;
• darklings;
• land molluscs.

Termites are the main food source for Australian and South American anteaters.

Every year more and more deserts come to the savannas. This is especially noticeable in Africa. main reason why savannahs are replaced by deserts is human activity. A person takes too much water from reservoirs for his needs, because of which the vegetation experiences a severe moisture deficit.

Other causes of desertification are global warming and intensive pastoralism. grazing large cattle eats grass so actively that the grass cover does not have time to recover.