Everything about Impala totally explained
An
impala (
Aepyceros melampus Greek
aipos "high"
ceros "horn" +
melas "black"
pous "foot") is a medium-sized
African
antelope. The name
impala comes from the
Zulu language. They are found in
savannas and thick
bushveld in
Kenya,
Tanzania,
Mozambique, northern
Namibia,
Botswana,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe, southern
Angola, northeastern
South Africa and
Uganda (the source of that country's capital city's name -
Kampala).
Appearance
Average mass for an Impala is approximately 75 kilograms. They are reddish-brown in color with lighter flanks, have white underbellies and a characteristic "M" marking on its rear. Males have
lyre-shaped horns which can reach up to 90 centimeters in length.
Ecology
Impala are among the dominant species in many
savannas. They can adapt to different environment by being grazers in some areas and browsers in others. They graze when the grass is green and growing and browse at other times. They will browse on formcsgaybs, shoots, bacon, seedpods and foliage.
Herds will use specific areas for their
excrement. Impala are active during both day and night and are dependent on water. A herd is normally an indicator of water close by. Impala can thrive in areas where pure grazers can not survive.
When frightened or startled the whole impala herd starts leaping about in order to confuse their predator. They can jump distances more than 9 meters (30 feet) and 2.5 meters (8 feet) high.
Leopards,
cheetah,
Nile crocodiles,
lions,
spotted hyenas and
wild dogs prey on impala.
When caught by a predator, Impalas sometimes as a last ditch play dead. This sometimes confuses the predator and it gives up on strangling and if then the predator moves off a bit, the Impala will immediately get up and run away. This opportunity works best when an impala is brought down by one predator but another comes to claim the kill and the two engage in a short dispute, which often removes attention from the impala.
High Speed Chase with Cheetahs
Even though they're hunted by lions and leopards, they real danger in terms of a speed chase are cheetahs only, since impalas easily outrun their other predators (Leopards and Lions often resort to stealth instead of speed to catch an Impala).
An adult impala can outrun a cheetah if the cheetah isn't within 30 yards as it begins its sprint. This is also a reason why cheetahs generally prefer to pursue fawns or juveniles, which are slower than the adults. During a pursuit, impalas never run in a straight line. Instead, an impala will make rapid turns to juke its pursuer, since they turn more speedily than cheetahs. Impalas also have more stamina than cheetahs. A cheetah is faster but only maintains its sprint speed for about 1500 meters. An impala can easily maintain speed for about 2000-2500 meters.
In escaping cheetahs, adults escape about 50% of the time. Fawns however succeed 20% of the time only.
Social structure and reproduction
Females and young form herds of up to two hundred individuals. When food is plentiful, adult males will establish territories and round up any female herd that enter their grounds and will chase away bachelor males that follow. They will even chase away recently weaned males. A male impala tries to prevent any female from leaving his territory. During the dry seasons, territories are abandoned as herds must travel farther to find food. Large, mixed tranquil herds of females and males form.
Young male impala who have been made to leave their previous herd form bachelor herds of around thirty individuals. Males that are able to dominate their herd are contenders for assuming control of their territory.
The breeding season of impala, also called
rutting, begins toward the end of the wet season in May. The entire affair typically lasts approximately three weeks. While young are born after seven months, the mother has the ability to prolong giving birth for an
additional month if conditions are harsh. When giving birth a female impala will isolate herself from the herd despite numerous attempts by the male to keep her in his territory. The impala mother will keep the fawn in an isolated spot for a few days or even leave it lying out in hiding for a couple days, weeks, or more before returning to the herd. There the fawn will join a nursery group and will go to its mother only to nurse and when predators are near. Fawns are suckled for 4 to 6 months. Males who mature are forced out of the group and will join bachelor herds.
Taxonomy
In the past,
taxonomists have put the impala in the same tribe as
gazelles,
kobs and
hartebeests. However it was found that the impala was so different from any of these tribes that it was put in its own tribe,
Aepycerotini respectively.
There are three subspecies:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Impala'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://impala.totallyexplained.com">Impala Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
