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Average Mass: |
Track: 60mm (2 3/8") x 41mm (1 5/8") |
The impala is active throughout the 24-hour day, alternating resting and grazing, and drinking at least once a day. Herds have a home range of about 2-6 square kilometers. About 1/3 of adult males hold territories, which vary in size from 0.2-0.9 square kilometers. These territories are marked with urine and feces, and are defended against the intrusion of rival males. The owner of the territory attempts to control any female herds which wander into it. Prodigious leaps are the most well known feature of the impala's movement. Executed seemingly without effort, these jumps may span over 9 meters / 30 feet and may be 2.5 meters / 8 feet high - often over bushes and even other impala. Unlike many other plains grazers, the impala flees into dense vegetation rather than out into the open grassland. During the breeding season, males make a hoarse grunting sound. This species ranges from Kenya and south Uganda to north-eastern South Africa ; a relict isolated population also exists between south-western Angola and north Namibia (East, 1996; Wilson & Reeder, 1993). A first distribution range was obtained from Skinner & Smithers (1990), reviewed on the basis of country maps in East (1988) and (1989), following Dr. R. East' s personal suggestions (23 June '97). The species has been widely introduced in Natal-Kwazulu. Categorical-discrete (CD) distribution model The species prefers edges between grassland and denser woodland, notably Acacia, it does not perform well in low nutrient status areas such as the Brachystegia woodland (Hirst, 1975; East, 1988, 1989, 1990; Jarman & Jarman, 1974).
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