IMPALA



How to Recognize
This medium-sized, common, and abundant antelope is the only one with a black tuft above their hooves. Impalas are light brown or tan in color, with lighter colored flanks and white bellies. Males have long, backward-sweeping ridged horns. The impala's incisor teeth are loose in their sockets to facilitate grooming.

Habitat
Impalas can be found in open woodland near short to medium grassland on well-drained soils. They avoid steep slopes.

Behavior
Diurnal. They mostly feed at dawn and dusk, resting in the shade to chew their cud in between. They will lie down in overcast weather. Impalas can be found in large herds of females (30 – 120) which overlap with several male territories.

Bucks congregate into bachelor groups, but they often tend to drift between different groups. Part of a buck’s strategy for dispersing scent is to high-kick, which releases pheromone from unique glands on their rear hooves.

Impalas are extremely fast and agile, and they are known for their distinctive high leaps when fleeing. They are able to cover 36 feet in a single bound at 10 feet high!

Breeding
One fawn is born in a sheltered spot after a 200-day gestation. Males are highly territorial during rut. During this time period, they will separate out from a herd a breeding harem of up to twenty females. Since impalas are in rut continuously, a male spends 25% of its time shepherding females into its territory and fighting off bachelor wannabes.

After three months of this activity, males are so exhausted that a dominant male from the bachelor group will win over. The male returns to the bachelor group to regain condition and status, and then it will usually set out to reclaim its territory. When courting or competing with other males for dominance, bucks show unique tongue-flashing behavior. (This I've got to see this some day!)

Feeding
They consume almost 100% grass during the rainy seasons, switching to nibbling on shrubs, seed pods, and herbage during the dry seasons.

Enemies
Because the are so common, they are preyed upon by all large carnivores such as lions, cheetahs, and hunting dogs. When approached by these animals, a herd of impalas will explode into every direction.


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Copyright © 2002, Dawn M. Dalton.
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