the.com/savanna
a grassland that survives on fire, choosing to burn before it surrenders to forest.
means A flat, open landscape of grasses dotted with scattered trees, typical of warm regions where rainfall is too seasonal for dense forest.
from From the Spanish 'sabana,' which colonizers borrowed from the Taíno 'zabana,' a word from the Indigenous people of the Caribbean for a treeless plain. It crossed into English in the 16th century along with the early Spanish accounts of the New World — one of a handful of everyday words that still carry a whisper of the Taíno tongue, much of which was lost after contact.
- fire dependent
- Regular burns stop trees from stealing the grass
- human cradle
- Early humans evolved walking upright across it
- global spread
- Covers roughly a fifth of Earth's land
- termite engineers
- Mounds enrich soil and shape where plants grow
- wet-dry rhythm
- Two seasons only: drenched, then dust
serengeti — 1.5 million wildebeest migrate annually across tanzania and kenya
kruger national park — 19,485 km² savanna in south africa with the big five
masai mara — 1,510 km² reserve in kenya hosting the great migration
okavango delta — 15,000 km² inland delta savanna in botswana