Adopt a cheetah, meerkat, or another African animal.
The National Zoo Store Online offers an array of books, educational games, and more related to the African Savanna.
Visit
the Smithsonian's African Art Museum.
The East African savanna, a dry tropical grassland, is home to a rich array of spectacular animals. Predators like lions and cheetahs prey on grazing and browsing animals like zebras and gazelles. Stately birds like kori bustards stalk smaller prey while rarely seen naked mole-rats inhabit burrows on the savanna; huge hippos stay cool in rivers and lakes. You can see these species and more without traveling to Africa. Just come to the Zoo or take a virtual visit. 
African species at the Zoo
Animals from many parts of Africa make their home at the Zoo. The Zoo's Cheetah Conservation Station is home to Grevy's zebras, scimitar-horned oryx, dama gazelles, cheetahs, and other animals. And a Nile hippo and a pygmy hippo can be seen at Elephant House, in addition to capybaras from South America and three Asian elephants.
The Great Sand Sea
Although it's not easy living in the extreme landscape of Africa's Kalahari, some fascinating wildlife thrives there. 
Read all about the desert and its animal inhabitants in Smithsonian Zoogoer.
Cheetah Artificially Inseminated
Zazi, a female cheetah at the Zoo's Cheetah Science Facility in Front Royal Virginia, was recently artificially inseminated with semen from a cheetah in Namibia. The selection of the Namibian cheetah for this procedure was to help boost genetic diversity. Widespread habitat destruction has fragmented what remains of the cheetah's current range, isolating many populations. Scientists have found that many cheetahs suffer from genetic defects due to inbreeding, possibly the result of a population bottleneck—a sharp decline—that occurred perhaps as far back as 10,000 years ago when massive climatic changes caused large numbers of mammals to disappear.
In 2005, Zazi gave birth to a litter of cubs, the second cheetah litter ever born at the Zoo. Animal-care staff may not know if she is pregnant until she gives birth, which would happen in September. Learn about cheetahs. | Adopt a cheetah.
Can’t see any animals?
Spotting cheetahs:
Three male and two female cheetahs live at the Zoo's Cheetah Conservation Station. Cheetahs are the world's fastest land mammal, able to run as fast as 60 miles per hour.
Cheetah Cam 3 Related Cams Naked Mole-rat Lions  |
Cheetah Chat
Tune into the Zoo's podcast, Cheetah Chat, to learn about cheetah spots and speed, and the history and future of the Zoo's cheetah conservation efforts.
Visiting the Cheetahs
The Zoo's Cheetah Conservation Station is home to three young male cheetah brothers and two female cheetahs. These brothers are on exhibit together, and the females are on exhibit in the other yards. On good-weather days, you may see a cheetah chasing a lure around the yard closest to Olmsted Walk. 
Meet the cheetahs.
Animal Enigma
This striped carnivore lives in many regions of Africa and is now on exhibit at the Small Mammal House. What is it?
Grasslands in Africa and Beyond
Africa's
Sahel grassland, home to endangered scimitar-horned oryx and
many other rare species, merges into the Sahara desert to
the north and the savanna to the south. Mostly dry grasslands
also cover southern Africa, home to cheetahs, Cape buffalo,
black rhinos, and kori bustards also found in East Africa.
Zoo scientists are working in all of these areas to help conserve
the incredible biodiversity of Africa's grasslands.
Moist tropical forests blanket parts of central and West Africa, home to great apes, including western lowland gorillas, which you can see at the Zoo.
North America's grasslands were once home to abundant black-footed ferrets, bison, and prairie
dogs. On South
America's plains, seriemas and maned wolves stalk prey. Parts
of Asia, such
as Mongolia, home of Bactrian camels, Mongolian gazelles,
and Prezwalski's horses, are covered with grasslands.
