The South Saharan steppe and woodlands, also known as the South Sahara desert, is a deserts and xeric shrublands ecoregion of northern Africa. This band is a transitional region between the Sahara's very arid center (the Sahara desert ecoregion) to the north, and the wetter Sahelian Acacia savanna ecoregion to the south.[1] In pre-modern times, the grasslands were grazed by migratory gazelles and other ungulates after the rainfalls.