Leaping acrobats and prays in Kruger -The Impala

"Look at that beautiful Impala !"- said Tarr with astonishment after we entered the park on our first day and the an antelope suddenly jumped over the road and joined the others. We stopped by a smaller herd. We were watching them from the safety of our car with closed windows - not that they would have meant any harm, but they were less alert - and they were looking back and staring at us. It was a real excitement that time.

After traveling in Kruger for several days the impala (Aepyceros Melampus) seemed to be the most common sight, so we could come to the conclusion that they were everywhere and they were the least interesting ones of all as one "gets bored" to run into them all the time.

But these graceful animals are very interesting to watch as they just socialize, the young rams fight and ewes feed their calves, and when frightened or startled the whole herd starts leaping about in order to confuse their predator. They can jump distances more than 10 meters (33 ft) and 3 meters (9 ft) high and an impala can reach running speeds of around 80 to 90 km/h (50-55 mph) even hard for a cheetah to catch the animal.

Along both the asphalt and offside routes the impala browses on shrubbery and grazes grass by the roads where they always find fresh patches and more or less protected from big predators as they can monitor their surroundings all the time. But leaps are a rare sight and mostly they are seen just standing by the road and feed.

We loved watching them as they suddenly moved their reddish-brown body and shaking their back with that black stripe, which extends from the top of the rump down the back of each thigh (as can be seen on the last shot)
The impala is often preyed upon by leopards, cheetah, Nile crocodiles, lions, spotted hyenas and wild dogs. So they had better watch out !





















The name of this medium-sized African antelope comes from the Zulu language meaning "Gazelle". But they are put in their own tribe and dont belong to gazelles. Impala are among the dominant species in many savannas, including South Africa. They can adapt to different environment by being grazers in some areas and browsers in others.


Impala are active during both day and night and are dependent on water. A herd is normally an indicator of water close by but they can thrive in areas where pure grazers can not survive.



Females and young form herds. 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 its territory.







A beautiful ram is staring at us, with its typical lyre-shaped horns.











An ewe (female) is running away.












A young male in the company of calves.









A thirsty impala was trying to get close to a waterhole where 3 buffalo were resting. We were watching the whole scene and it took him about 15 minutes to finally get there and start drinking.



Next: the big 5 are coming !