The Impala – Aepyceros Melampus

This is the second in an ongoing series of stories about the bush in Africa. All photos are taken by the author himself, while travelling.
This medium sized antelope is a survivor and is very hardy, being ideally adopted for the African bush. It is a beautiful runner that shows of its agility while running at speeds in excess of 60 km per hour and can leap further than 10 meters and higher than 3 meters. Using its speed and agility to shake of predators, its survival strategy is to scatter when threatened, and run in all directions.

two impala in the bush

Eating both grass and leaves it survives dry spells well, as opposed to those who only eat grass. Having had a recent drought where we had virtually no grass left and where feeding the animals, the came through pretty well as opposed to the zebra and wildebeest, many of whom died.

The beautiful colouring

Many a night sitting around our fire, the sound of the male Impala has had visitors thinking it must be a predator. The ram can make a sound something between a lion’s roar and a dog’s bark. While you can hear this throughout the year, it is mainly prevalent during mating season.

The Impala is found in the northern parts of South Africa and Botswana, all the way up to Kenya and is one of the more common animals that will be seen when travelling these parts. There regular sightings does not detract from their grace and beauty and one soon come to feel that while not as spectacular as the Lion or Giraffe, or as rare as the Leopard, they symbolise the bush.

Other Articles in this series include
The African Bush – 4 July 2017