Parque Nacional da Gorongosa Moçambique

Description

Impala are medium-sized antelopes with dark reddish coats on top, lighter in the middle, and a white belly. Only male impala have horns, and these horns reach their full length and thickness at about four years of age. Impala have tufts of black hair on their hind legs that cover scent glands that release a pheromone, particularly in times of danger.  This signals to other members of their group to escape together into dense tree cover.  Impala do not have any close relatives in the antelope family.

Impala are both grazers and browsers, unlike most herbivores that are either grazers or browsers.  Their adaptable diet includes fresh green grass, acacia foliage, seed pods, herbs unpalatable to most other herbivores, and even dry leaves.  Their preferred habitats are fringe areas where savannah meets woodland and where grassland meets savannah. 

Females are found in groups up to 30-120 individuals with one male.  Females in an area all give birth within two or three weeks during the November rainy season when food and cover is abundant. Males mark their territory with fresh dung and urine twice each day—once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  This is repeated every day to make the territory safe for the herd by communicating to other males not to cross into the area. Other males live in bachelor herds.  Individual impalas and groups are faithful to the same particular area for their entire lives.

If another bull enters their territory, the bulls will fight each other by charging and butting horns. When older bulls challenge each other, they are noisy struggles to overtake a territory.  The resulting barking can often be mistaken for the roar of a lion.

Although they are rarely found far from water, impala are able to survive without a drink for months during the rainy season and for up to a week in the dry season. They feed on grasses with high moisture content to meet their water needs.  They will also drink the dew from dry grass on early mornings and lick water from their own coats after rains to quench their thirst.

How to See

Impala are abundant in Gorongosa National Park.  Impala can be found in areas with thick grass and acacia, flat terrain, and near sources of water.   There are currently more than 560 in the Park.

Status

IUCN: Lower Risk, Conservation Dependent
Africa: Common
Mozambique: Common
Gorongosa: Common

Conservation

The impala population in Gorongosa National Park is very healthy, and there are no conservation plans at this time.