I.

Introduction

Savannah, also savanna, open tropical grassland sometimes with a scattering of shrubs and trees. The word savannah is derived from the 16th century-Spanish word zavanna, meaning “treeless plain”, but today it is applied to a more diverse set of landscapes from the truly treeless grasslands of parts of South America and the tree-dotted grasslands of Africa, to the lightly wooded savannahs of northern Australia. The biome occurs in areas where rainfall is sufficient to prevent the establishment of desert vegetation but too low to support rainforests. They are held between these two extremes by climate, grazing, and fire. Savannahs are among the most spectacular of biomes from both a landscape and wildlife perspective.