The Graceful Jumper of the African Savanna

Impala are medium-sized antelopes found throughout the savannas and open woodland regions of eastern and southern Africa. During the rainy season, fresh vegetation becomes plentiful, and impalas often gather into enormous herds containing hundreds of animals. These groups browse and graze on many types of vegetation, including grasses, herbs, leaves, bushes, and tender shoots.

Surviving Against Predators

Staying together in large groups gives impalas an important advantage when facing predators such as lions. If one animal notices a threat, it can give a strong alarm call that alerts the other members of the herd. Once warned, the group can flee rapidly, making it much harder for a predator to single out and catch an individual.

Impalas are particularly well known for their remarkable running and jumping skills. They can make leaps covering as much as 33 feet (10 meters), using their powerful legs to escape pursuing predators. At times, however, these impressive jumps may simply be part of their normal playful behavior.

These highly agile antelopes can also clear obstacles that are almost 10 feet (3 meters) tall, including bushes and dense vegetation. When moving quickly across open terrain, an impala will often jump directly over an obstacle in one dramatic bound instead of slowing down or turning around it.

Mating and Reproduction

Male impalas can be identified by their long, curved horns, which have a distinctive spiral shape. These horns are especially important during the breeding season, when males compete against one another for opportunities to mate with females.

Older and stronger males generally establish territories and defend them while maintaining groups of females within their boundaries. During the breeding period, males face the difficult task of guarding their territory, keeping competing males away, and mating with the females in their group.

When a rival male attempts to take control of an established territory, the two males may engage in a horn-to-horn battle. If the challenger is defeated, it will generally retreat and join a bachelor group made up of males that have not yet obtained territories of their own.

Female impalas usually give birth approximately seven months after mating and most often produce a single calf. Within only a few days of birth, the mother and her newborn typically return to a larger female-based group that includes other mothers and their young.