Rainfall in grasslands is seasonal, and animals sometimes travel great distances to find green grass.  Gazelles, gnus, and zebras migrate by the thousands through the African savannas.  Smaller groups of elephants and rhinoceroses also feed on the grasses there.  Such meat-eating mammals as cheetahs, hyenas, and lions roam the savannas in search of prey.  The savannas are also home to giraffes, jackals, ostriches, secretary birds, and termites.  In addition, hippopotamuses live in and near bodies of water in African grasslands.  Animals of other grasslands include the kangaroos and wombats of Australia, the cavies and rheas of South America, and the coyotes and prairie dogs of North America. 

Many animals of the grasslands have become endangered due to loss of their habitat and to overhunting.  The rich soils of grasslands are ideal for farming, and people have converted many such areas to farmland.  Many of the large grassland animals are favorite big game for hunters.  For example, the once-plentiful pampas deer of South America have become extremely rare.  As the pampas are converted to farmland, the tall grass that grows there disappears.  Without this grass, the pampas deer have no shelter and become easy prey.  Bison once grazed in huge herds in the Great Plains of North America.  But so many of these animals were killed by hunters or died as their grassland habitat was converted to farmland that they were nearly wiped out.