Savannah brings the savanna to life with nine new animals wired into a real food web, where prey graze and stampede in herds, predators hunt them along a pecking order, and several species can be tamed into companions. Every animal is fully animated with GeckoLib, and every one of them turns its head to watch you.
Inspired by Naturalist.
The animals
All nine spawn naturally in savanna biomes (the crocodile also spawns at rivers, swamps, and mangrove swamps), and each has a spawn egg in the creative menu.
| Animal | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🦌 Gazelle | Prey | Fast and jumpy; pronks and bolts from predators. Breed with wheat. |
| 🐂 Wildebeest | Prey | The bulk of the herd; sturdier and slower. Breed with wheat. |
| 🐆 Cheetah | Predator · pet | The fastest hunter, the most fragile. Tame with any raw meat. |
| 🦁 Lion | Apex · pet | Ambush hunter of large prey; hardest to tame. Tame with raw beef. |
| 🦁 Lioness | Apex · pet | The pride's primary hunter. Tame with raw beef. |
| 🐺 Hyena | Predator · pet | A clan hunter. Braver in numbers. Tame with a bone. |
| 🐘 Elephant | Neutral · rideable | Never flees; saddle and ride it. Tame with hay bales. |
| 🐊 Crocodile | Predator · wild | Amphibious ambusher, the heaviest hitter. Wild, lead only. |
| 🦅 Vulture | Neutral · pet | Soars and dive-bombs; scavenges carrion. Tame and perch it with a bone. |
How it works
- Food web: cheetahs hunt small prey, lions and lionesses hunt large prey, crocodiles hunt both. Entirely tag-driven, so it's editable by datapack.
- Pecking order: a dominance ladder among land predators (lion = lioness > hyena > cheetah): a subordinate flees a dominant and loses its kill, but is faster, so it plays out as harassment, not slaughter.
- Taming & breeding: tameable species use a horse-style temper roll. The same food tames a wild one, heals a hurt one, and breeds a healthy pair.
- Companions: tamed cats and hyenas follow you, defend you, and join your fights. Ride a saddled elephant; perch a vulture on your shoulder and tell it to sit.
- Herds, prides & clans: prey move as herds and stampede when struck; lions form prides; hyenas find courage in clans.
- Protecting the young: lions, lionesses, elephants, and hyenas defend their babies polar-bear style.
- Drops & cooking: animals drop meat, hides, bones, feathers, and ivory. Gazelle meat can be cooked in a furnace, smoker, or on a campfire.
Requirements
- Minecraft 26.1.2 on NeoForge
- GeckoLib 5.5.2 or newer required, on both client and server
- Required on both client and server (a client without it can't join a server that has it, and vice versa)
License
Released under the MIT License.
