Animals of

the African
Savanna
By Emily
Waldmann
What Animals Might You Discover While on Safari?
by

Emily Waldmann

LEARN ABOUT SOME OF THE MOST POPULAR ANIMALS OF THE SAVANNA

CHECK OUT PAGE 2 FOR RELATED MATH PROBLEMS

If you were to go on an African safari, there

are a plethora of animals that you could spot!
The African Savanna is home to some of the
largest and fastest land mammals on Earth.
From elephants to ostriches, these animals
are as different from one another as you are
from your classmates!

African Elephant (Loxodonta)

Also known as the Bush Elephant, the African
Elephant is the largest terrestrial, meaning
land-dwelling, animal on Earth. Their most
defining feature that sets them apart from
Asian Elephants is their ears which are
much larger than that of their Asian relatives.
Fun Fact: Think losing your baby teeth was
rough? African Elephants will loose and
replace their teeth between four and six
times during their lives!

Reticulated Giraffe (Giraffa

camelopardalis reticulata)
The most well-known of the giraffe species,
the reticulated giraffe is so named for its
netting-like pattern of polygonal spots. They
are the tallest land mammals in existence,
and like elephants, they are herbivores so
dont worry, they wont eat you while youre
on safari!

Afican Lion (Panthera leo)

When it comes to the African Savanna, the
lion definitely reins as King of popular safari
finds! Like many other animals, male lions
differ greatly from female lions, both in how
they look and what their roles are in their
prides, or groups. Male lions actually spend
most of their
day sleeping
about 20
hours a day!
(Imagine what
your mother
would say)
Female lions
are slightly
more active,
doing most of the hunting and child rearing
for the pride. Unlike elephants and giraffes,
lions enjoy a carnivorous diet, meaning they
eat meat often zebras or gazelles.

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

Just like lions, cheetahs are carnivorous animals of
the African Savannah; in fact, the two species
often compete for the same food. Cheetahs are
the fastest land mammals on Earth, running at a
top speed of 70
miles per hour.
Thats about as fast
as your parents
drive on the
highway! Cheetahs
speed is thanks to
their aerodynamic
build they have a
slender body, small
rounded head, and long thin legs; they are built
very differently from many other big cats, which
tend to be more robust.

Emilu Waldmann Animals of the African Savanna Math Tasks

Math Task 1

A cheetah can run at a maximum speed of

75 miles per hour. A lion can run at a
maximum speed of 50 miles per hour. How
much faster could a cheetah run than a lion?

MAFS.2.OA.1.1 Use
addition and subtraction
within 100 to solve one- and
two-step word problems
involving situations of adding
to, taking from, putting
together, taking apart, and
comparing, with unknowns
in all positions, e.g., by using
drawings and equations with
a symbol for the unknown
number to represent the
problem.

Math Task 3
Math Task 2

One of the giraffes on the savannah has a

neck that is 8 feet tall. The giraffes legs are 7
feet long. He is eating leaves from a tree
branch that is 20 feet off the ground. How
tall must the rest of the giraffes body be for
him to be tall enough to eat the leaves off the
branch?

Practice 2: Reason abstractly

and quantitatively
Practice 8: Look for and
express regularity in
repeated reasoning
For this problem, students
must set up a basic
subtraction problem. They
need to first determine
which the larger number is
and then subtract the
smaller number from that. It
is important that students
understand place value and
are lining up their numbers
correctly when setting up the
subtraction problem

MAFS.2.MD.2.5 Use
addition and subtraction
within 100 to solve word
problems involving lengths
that are given in the same
units, e.g., by using drawings
(such as drawings of rulers)
and equations with a symbol
for the unknown number to
represent the problem.
Practice 1: Make sense of
problems and persevere in
solving them
Practice 2: Reason abstractly
and quantitatively
To solve this missing addend
problem, students have to
figure out what 8 + 7 is (15).
They then have to determine
that in order to solve the
problem, they must find out
how long the rest of the
giraffes body is. In order to
do this, they can either
subtract 15 from 20 (the
height of the leaves) or count
up from 15 to 20.

Look at the picture of the elephants.

Measure the lengths of the elephants trunks
in centimeters and tell which elephant has
the longest trunk and which has the shortest
trunk.

(For this problem, there would be a graphic

of three elephants labeled A, B, and C.
Elephant As trunk measures 9 cm, Bs
measures 12 cm, and Cs measures 8 cm.
Students are given a ruler to complete the
task.)

MAFS.2.MD.1.5 Measure to
determine how much longer
one object is than another,
expressing the length
difference in terms of a
standard length unit.

Practice 5: Use
appropriate tools
strategically
Practice 6: Attend to
precision

To solve this measurement problem,

students must be able to identify the
centimeter side of the ruler, start
measuring at the 0 mark of the ruler,
and compare lengths to determine
which length is longest and which is
shortest.