Impala

Impalas eat grass and leaves.

In the rainy season they eat young grass. In the dry season they eat leaves from bushes. They have more food than animals that eat only one kind.

Impalas can do two jobs at once: they graze on grass and browse on leaves. In the rainy season they eat fresh young grass shoots. In the dry season they switch to herbs, shrubs and leaves.

Being able to eat both gives impalas a bigger and more reliable food supply than animals that eat only grass or only leaves. Like cows, they are ruminants, which chew their cud.

Impalas are intermediate or mixed feeders: predominantly grazers when grass is lush after the rains, they switch to browse in the dry season. The African Wildlife Foundation notes that this flexibility gives them a greater and more reliable food supply than strict grazers or browsers.

As ruminants they chew the cud, typically ruminating and resting at night, and they lack upper incisors and canines; the cheek teeth are folded and sharply ridged. Peak feeding and movement occur shortly after dawn and before dusk, and Animal Diversity Web notes that impalas can adapt to almost any mix of grass and browse.

Impalas live in herds.

Moms and young live together. In the rainy season, males guard their own land. In the dry season, everyone mixes together.

Female impalas live in herds of about 15 to 100, with their young. Males without territories, young and adult, form bachelor herds. When food is plentiful in the rainy season, adult males guard territories and try to keep female herds on their land.

When the dry season comes, males give up their territories, and herds travel farther to find food and mix together. Animal Diversity Web says impalas are active by day, especially just after dawn and before dusk, and rest and chew the cud at night; Ultimate Ungulate says they alternate resting and grazing around the clock.

Impala society changes with the seasons. In the wet season there are three kinds of group: territorial males, bachelor herds and breeding herds of females and young. Female clans of about 15 to 100 occupy home ranges of 80 to 180 hectares. Territorial males defend small breeding territories with tail-raising, forehead marking, herding, chasing and roaring.

In the dry season territories are abandoned and clans overlap and mix, though Animal Diversity Web notes that eastern impalas remain more territorial than southern ones. This flexibility, the African Wildlife Foundation suggests, helps the species adapt to changing conditions.

There are lots of impalas.

But roads and towns are cutting up their land. People are making safe paths so impalas can travel between parks.

The impala is common: the IUCN estimates about two million adults, and lists it as Least Concern. But it still faces problems. Roads, settlements and too much livestock farming are taking over its land, and some impalas are poached, even inside parks.

Conservation groups help plan where roads and towns go, and they set aside wildlife corridors, strips of land that let impalas and other animals move safely from one park to another.

The IUCN's 2016 assessment lists the impala as Least Concern, with about 2,000,000 mature individuals and a stable trend. The African Wildlife Foundation identifies unsustainable livestock farming, human encroachment and the expansion of roads and settlements as major threats, since fragmented habitat makes it harder for animals to move between parks to feed, breed and give birth. Poaching around and within protected areas adds pressure, and impalas are widely hunted on safaris and for meat in South Africa.

AWF works with governments on planning that avoids fragmentation and with communities to designate wildlife corridors, in some cases buying land so that wildlife can move between protected areas.