Impala (Aepyceros malampus)

Impala can go up to six weeks without water if necessary, as they derive enough moisture from their fodder to sustain them.

Males use a gland (which looks like a dark brown patch of hair between his horns) as one means of marking his territory.

Studies on impala show that they are capable of leaping up to twelve meters in a single bound.

 Females will eat their afterbirth so that hyaenas and other predators cannot smell that a young has been born. The females of many other antelope species do the same.

Except for during the mating season, impala are to be seen in three separate groups:

a) female herd with young under two years of age;

b) territorial males with females;

c) bachelor herds of males over two years of age.

Male sentries for the herd are pat to be killed first by predators as they usually range far out from the rest of the herd and are therefore more vulnerable.

Born at the height of summer, the young attain full height within three years.

Female impalas have a gland low behind their back legs which looks like brown hair. When they give birth, this gland helps the young to follow their mothers as it gives off a scent which is left on the grass as she walks through it.

Young males are driven out of the herd when they are about two years old. They then join bachelor herds until they are mature enough to hold their own territory.