Climatic Conditions, Plant Life, Animal Life in Tropical Savanna

Climatic Conditions

Long dry warm season and short rainy season; water is the limiting factor.

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Plant Life

1. Dominated by grasses.

2. Water availability determines tree growth. Trees represent compromise between reducing the maintenance costs of unnecessary height of the requirement of being tall enough and reduce mammalia browsing.

3. Trees 6-\2m height strongly rooted with flattened crowns

4. Trees exhibit various drought resistant features:

i. consist of spines (Acacia)

ii. Baobab is bottle-shaped

5. Vegetation shows many adaptations to fire.

i. Most trees are fire resistant; therefore, species diversity is low.

ii. Some seeds are covered with hard shell, which breaks at 80°C only.

iii. Most of the trees reproduce themselves by throwing up suckers not many by seed germination.

iv. Possess thick bark and thick bud-scales.

Animal Life

1. High productivity and abundance of easily digestible food has led to large number of 1^SI order consumers encourages large numbers of herds of growing mammals – lions, big cats, hunting dogs, jackals and hyenas.

2. Large mammals provide living for scavengers so characterised by vultures.

3. Dominated by hoofed mammals adapted to running on flat plain: wild beast Zebra, Giraffe.

4. The largest animals are conspicuous related to size mammals – elephants, giraffe, rhinoceros (living fossil); related to mobility-gazelles, ostriches, other flightless birds, such as enus; related to gregarious habits of many resulting in vast herds or flocks.

5. Despite large number, competition for food is not as fierce because of elaborate specialisation.