Impala (Aepyceros melampus): Facts, Leaps and Habitat

What does an impala look like?

The impala is slender and long-legged, built for quick, agile movement rather than brute strength. Its glossy coat is two-toned: a rich reddish brown on the back and a paler tan on the flanks, sharply set off from a white belly. There are white rings around the eyes, a pale chin and black tips on the ears.

Several black marks help identify an impala at a glance. A vertical black stripe runs down each side of the rump and onto the thigh, and the bushy white tail has a black stripe along its center. Seen from behind, these marks form a pattern that some safari guides jokingly call the “M” sign.

Low on each hind leg, just above the hoof, is a tuft of black hair covering a scent gland. These distinctive tufts are a reliable field mark. The gland’s secretions are thought to help herd members keep track of one another.

Only males grow horns. They are slender, strongly ridged and curve up, out and then forward in the shape of a lyre, reaching 45–92 cm (18–36 in) in length. Rams use them in fights over territory and females.

How big is an impala?

Impalas are medium-sized antelopes, similar in build to a Grant’s gazelle or a kob. Males are clearly larger than females.

The head and body measure about 1.3 m (4.3 ft), and the tail adds about 30 cm (12 in). The black-faced impala, a subspecies of northwestern Namibia and southwestern Angola, is larger and darker than the common impala and has a dark stripe running from the nose up to the eyes.

Where do impalas live?

Impalas are found across eastern and southern Africa, from central and southern Kenya and northeastern Uganda south to northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and west to Namibia and southern Angola. They have been reintroduced or introduced to protected areas in Gabon and across southern Africa.

Their favorite habitat is light woodland, especially the edge (ecotone) where woodland meets grassland or savanna. Here they find both grass and bushes to eat, plus shade and cover. They prefer to stay within reach of water and avoid very tall grass, where predators can hide. In southern Africa they are typical of mopane and acacia woodland.

Two subspecies are generally recognized:

• Common impala (A. m. melampus): widespread across the whole range and abundant in parks such as the Maasai Mara, Serengeti, Okavango Delta and Kruger.
• Black-faced impala (A. m. petersi): restricted to northwestern Namibia (Kaokoland) and southwestern Angola, with a much smaller population.

What do impalas eat?

Impalas are herbivores and are known as mixed or intermediate feeders, which means they both graze grass and browse leaves from bushes and trees. This flexibility is one of the main reasons they are so successful.

During and after the rains, when fresh green grass is plentiful, grass can make up as much as 90% of the diet. In the dry season, as grass withers, impalas switch to browsing on leaves, shoots, flowers and fruit, and they eagerly pick up fallen acacia pods and marula fruit. Over a whole year, roughly equal amounts of grass and browse are eaten.

Like cattle, impalas are ruminants: they chew the cud and digest tough plant matter with the help of microbes in a four-chambered stomach. They drink regularly when water is available but can get by on moisture from green plants.

How do impalas live together?

Impalas are social animals, and their herds change with the seasons. Three main kinds of group can be seen:

• Breeding herds of females and their young, usually from 6 to about 100 animals, which wander within home ranges of 80–180 hectares (200–440 acres).
• Bachelor herds of young and non-territorial males, usually fewer than 30 strong.
• Territorial males, which hold patches of ground during the breeding season and try to keep females within them.

Impalas are active mainly by day, especially in the cool hours after dawn and before dusk, and rest and chew the cud at night. They are one of the few hoofed mammals known to groom one another as well as themselves. Using special comb-like lower front teeth, two impalas take turns nibbling at each other’s head and neck to remove ticks. Oxpeckers, small birds that ride on large mammals, also pick ticks from them.

The most striking sound an impala makes is the male’s “roar” during the rut: a series of loud snorts followed by deep grunts, which can carry up to about 2 km (1.2 mi). Both sexes give a sharp alarm snort when they spot danger.

Why are impalas famous for leaping?

When an impala herd is startled, it can explode in all directions, with animals bounding high over bushes, gullies and even each other. Single leaps can reach about 3 m (10 ft) high and about 10 m (33 ft) long. Impalas also perform a series of springy bounds in which they kick their hind legs out in mid-air.

This sudden scatter of leaping bodies is thought to confuse predators, making it harder for a lion or wild dog to focus on one target. You can read more in How high can an impala jump?.

How do impalas reproduce?

In southern Africa the rut is short and intense, lasting about three weeks toward the end of the wet season, usually around May. Territorial rams chase each other, roar and display their horns and necks, and some fights end with horns locked. Winners court the females in their territory. Males can breed at about one year old but rarely win a territory before about four years of age.

Females can conceive at about 18 months. Pregnancy lasts six to seven months (about 194–200 days), and a single calf is born. In southern Africa most calves arrive within a few weeks of each other around November and December, at the start of the rains. In East Africa, where rain falls more evenly, births are spread over more of the year.

A mother gives birth alone and hides her calf in thick cover for the first days. The calf then joins a nursery group of young impalas within the herd. Calves are suckled for about four to six months. Young females usually stay with the breeding herd, while young males are pushed out and join bachelor groups.

What are the impala’s predators?

Because they are common and medium-sized, impalas are hunted by nearly every large predator in their range: leopards, lions, cheetahs, African wild dogs, spotted hyenas, Nile crocodiles and African rock pythons. Calves are also taken by jackals, eagles and baboons. See What eats impalas? for how each predator hunts them.

Their defenses are vigilance, speed and numbers. Animals at the edge of a herd stay especially alert, and an alarm snort sends the whole group fleeing. Impalas are fast runners, though estimates of their top speed vary, and the bursts of leaping are often their best escape. Synchronized births in southern Africa mean so many calves appear at once that predators cannot catch them all.

How long do impalas live?

Wild impalas live up to about 12–15 years, but many die much younger, especially calves and males that have spent their energy defending territories. In captivity, impalas have lived to about 17 years.

Conservation status

The IUCN Red List classifies the impala as Least Concern, with a stable population trend (assessment published in 2016). The total population was estimated at around two million animals in 2008, and about a quarter of them live in protected areas. Densities vary hugely, from less than one impala per square kilometer in some reserves to more than 100 per square kilometer in the richest areas.

The black-faced impala is a different story. This subspecies is assessed as Vulnerable, with fewer than 1,000 estimated in the wild in 2008. Poaching and drought have reduced its numbers, and it has been moved into Etosha National Park and onto private land in Namibia to help it recover.

Impalas and people

The impala is one of the first animals visitors see on safari, and in parks like Kruger it is so common that it is sometimes nicknamed “the McDonald’s of the bush” because of the “M” marking on its rump. It was first described scientifically by the German zoologist Hinrich Lichtenstein in 1812.

The English name comes from Zulu, and in Afrikaans it is called rooibok, meaning “red buck”. The scientific name means “black-footed high-horn” in Ancient Greek, a reference to the black heel tufts and the tall horns. Impalas are also an important source of game meat on farms and conservancies in southern Africa.

Myths and facts

Myth: impalas are a kind of gazelle. Impalas look like gazelles, but they are the only living species in their own genus and tribe. Some genetic studies place them closer to small antelopes such as the suni than to gazelles.

Myth: impalas leap only to show off. Their leaps are mainly an anti-predator behavior. Scientists still debate whether they also signal fitness to predators, as stotting does in some gazelles, but escaping and confusing hunters is the best-supported explanation.