Table of Contents
Overview
Brief Summary
Biology
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Description
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Distribution
Range Description
In Namibia, the Black-faced Impala is naturally confined to the Kaokoland in the north-west, and neighbouring south-western Angola. Kaokoland was set aside as a protected area in 1928, when it formed part of Etosha N.P., but lost its protection status in 1970. To guard against its extinction, Black-faced Impala were translocated to south-western Etosha on the edge of the historic Black-faced Impala range (Green and Rothstein 1998). Today, this subspecies occurs between the Otjimborombonga area (ca 12°45'E) and Swartbooisdrift on the Cunene R., southward to the Kaoko Otavi area in the south-western part of the Etosha N.P., and the Kamanjab District just south of the Park (Fritz and Bourgarel in press). There is no information on the current status of this subspecies in Angola (Crawford-Cabral and Veríssimo 2005)
Common Impala have been introduced to numerous privately owned game ranches and small reserves throughout southern Africa. Impala have also been introduced in two protected areas in Gabon (P. Chardonnet pers. comm.).
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Geographic Range
The impala is found from northeast South Africa to Angola, south Zaire, Rwanda, Uganda,and Kenya.
Biogeographic Regions: ethiopian (Native )
- Wilson, D., D. Reeder, eds. 1993. Mammal Species of the World. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
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Range
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Physical Description
Morphology
Physical Description
Impala are sexually dimorphic. In this species only the males have S shaped horns that are 45 to 91.7 cm long. These horns are heavily ridged, thin, and the tips lie far apart. Both sexes are similarly colored with red-brown hair which pales on the sides. The underside of the belly, chin, lips, inside ears, the line over the eye, and tail are white. There are black stripes down the tail, foreheard, both thighs, and eartips. These black stripes might aid in recognition between individuals. Aepyceros melampus also have scent glands on their rear feet beneath patches of black hair as well as sebaceous glands on the forehead.
Range mass: 45 to 60 kg.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: male larger; ornamentation
- Jarman, M. 1979. Impala Social Behaviour: Territory, Hierarchy, Mating,and the Use of Space. Berlin: Verlag Paul Parey.
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Ecology
Habitat
Habitat and Ecology
Systems
- Terrestrial
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The impala is found in woodland which contains little undergrowth and low to medium height grassland. Also a close source of water is desired, however is not needed when there is abundance of grass.
Habitat Regions: tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; scrub forest
- Estes, R. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. Los Angeles: The University of California Press.
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Trophic Strategy
Food Habits
Impala are ruminants. The upper incisors and canines are absent and the cheek teeth are folded and sharply ridged. Impala are intermediate feeders. While predominately a grazer, the impala will adapt to any amount of grass and browse. Impala feed mostly on grass during times of lush growth following the rains and will switch to browse during the dry season.
Plant Foods: leaves; wood, bark, or stems
Primary Diet: herbivore (Folivore )
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Associations
Predation
Aepyceros melampus uses various antipredatory techniques as well. The most common is to take flight and outrun or confuse the predator. Commonly impala will leap up or 3 meters in the air. They often leap up or out in any direction to confuse the predator. Another unique characteristic of leaping is when impala land on their front legs and kick the back legs into the air.
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Life History and Behavior
Life Expectancy
Lifespan/Longevity
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 15.0 years.
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 13.0 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 17.4 years.
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Lifespan, longevity, and ageing
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Reproduction
Males test the females' urine to detect estrous. The male then roars, snorts, or low stretches to advertise himself. After chasing the female, the male may show behaviors such as nodding and tongue flicking before copulation.
Mating System: polygynous
Female impalas are reproductively mature and conceive at 1.5 years. Males have the ability to breed at age 1, but often do not establish territories until age 4. Most breeding occurs in March through May. Gestation is 194-200 days.
Breeding interval: Impalas breed once a year.
Breeding season: Most breeding occurs in March through May.
Range number of offspring: 1 to 1.
Range gestation period: 6.47 to 6.67 months.
Range weaning age: 4 to 7 months.
Average weaning age: 4.5 months.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 1.5 years.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 1 years.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); viviparous
Average birth mass: 5550 g.
Average number of offspring: 1.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 395 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 456 days.
The female impalas isolate themselves before calving. Calving usually occurs in the midday. Usually there is only one calf. The mother and calf will rejoin the herd after 1-2 days. Impalas place the young in creches which are groups of young that play, groom, and move together. Young impala are weaned at 4.5 months.
Parental Investment: altricial ; pre-fertilization (Provisioning); pre-hatching/birth (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Female, Protecting: Female); post-independence association with parents
- Eltringham, S. 1979. The Ecology and Conservation of Large African Mammals. New York: The Macmillan Press Limited.
- Estes, R. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals. Los Angeles: The University of California Press.
- Jarman, M. 1979. Impala Social Behaviour: Territory, Hierarchy, Mating,and the Use of Space. Berlin: Verlag Paul Parey.
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Molecular Biology and Genetics
Molecular Biology
Barcode data: Aepyceros melampus
There is 1 barcode sequence available from BOLD and GenBank. Below is the sequence of the barcode region Cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI or COX1) from a member of the species. See the BOLD taxonomy browser for more complete information about this specimen. Other sequences that do not yet meet barcode criteria may also be available.
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Statistics of barcoding coverage: Aepyceros melampus
Public Records: 1
Specimens with Barcodes: 1
Species With Barcodes: 1
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Conservation
Conservation Status
IUCN Red List Assessment
Red List Category
Red List Criteria
Version
Year Assessed
Assessor/s
Reviewer/s
Justification
History
- 1996Lower Risk/conservation dependent
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Aepyceros melampus petersi is listed as endangered by the U.S. ESA and IUCN. Pressure resulting from habitat loss and damage have been linked to the decline in impala numbers.
US Federal List: endangered
CITES: no special status
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
- Delany, M., D. Happold. 1979. Ecology of African Mammals. New York: Longman Group Limited.
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Status
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Trends
Population
East's estimate of 2,200 for Black-faced Impala is slightly lower than that estimated by Green and Rothstein (1998), who estimated numbers in Etosha at around 1,500 individuals, with an additional 1,200 on private land, and the total population in Kaokoland at around 500. As of 2007, numbers in Etosha and private ranches are estimated at about 3,200 with a further 50-100 on conservancies (all stable and increasing); numbers in the north-west (the original native range) may number approximately 1,000 (J. Jackson in litt to ASG 2007).
As noted by Fritz and Bourgarel (in press), actual recorded densities of Impala vary substantially, from less than 1/km² in Mkomazi National Park (Tanzania) to as many as 135/km² on the shores of Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe (Bourgarel 1998). In the wooded savanna of Akagera N.P. in Rwanda, where Monfort (1972) recorded densities of 214/km², total numbers declined by about 75-80% between 1990 and 1998 (Williams and Ntayombya 1999).
Population Trend
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Threats
However, the introduction of Common Impala to ranches and conservancies neighbouring Etosha National Park may represent a threat to the Black-faced subspecies through hybridization. Green and Rothstein (1998) earlier estimated that about one-quarter of all privately owned Black-faced Impala occur in mixed herds with Common Impala. In a recent study, Lorenzen and Siegismund (2004) analysed 127 Black-faced Impala individuals from five subpopulations in Etosha National Park to determine whether any hybridization had taken place within the park, but could not find any evidence for hybridization between the two subspecies having taken place.
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Management
Conservation Actions
The main surviving populations of the Black-faced Impala occur in Etosha National Park and private farms in Namibia. The numbers of the Black-faced Impala should continue to increase in protected areas and on private land, although it remains at risk from hybridization with the Common Impala (East 1999). The Namibian government has a management plan to eliminate hybridization with Common Impala and strictly regulate harvests. The Namibian Professional Hunters Association has a Black-faced Impala committee and the NGO Conservation Force has a long-term involvement in all aspects of its conservation including funding of the management plan. Good management practices make the future of the taxon secure for now (John J. Jackson III, in litt. to ASG, August 2007).
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Conservation
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Relevance to Humans and Ecosystems
Benefits
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Positive Impacts: food
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Wikipedia
Impala
The impala (Aepyceros melampus) is a medium-sized African antelope. Its height ranges between 75 and 95 cm (30 and 37 in) and it weighs between 40 and 60 kg (88 and 130 lb).
It is found in savannas and thick bushveld in Kenya, Tanzania, Swaziland, Mozambique, northern Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, southern Angola, northeastern South Africa, and Uganda. It can be found in numbers of up to two million.[2]
Contents |
Taxonomy and etymology [edit]
The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle". The scientific name, Aepyceros melampus, is derived from Greek words αιπος aipos ("high"), κερος ceros ("horn") and melas ("black"), pous ("foot").
In the past, taxonomists had put impalas in the same tribe as gazelles, kobs, and hartebeests. However, the impala is so different from any of these tribes, it was put in its own tribe, Aepycerotini. This tribe has now been elevated to subfamily status.
Up to six subspecies have been described.[3][4] Usually, however, only two are distinguished (supported by mitochondrial DNA analysis):[4]
- Black-faced impala (A. m. petersi)
- Common impala (A. m. melampus)
Only one species of impala exists today, but several fossil species are also known, including A. datoadeni, from the Pliocene of Ethiopia.[5]
Physical description [edit]
The impala is sexually dimorphic.[6] It is around 75 and 95 cm (30 and 37 in) tall. The average mass for a male impala is 40 to 75 kg (88 to 170 lb), while females weigh about 30 to 50 kg (66 to 110 lb). The coat is short and glossy, normally reddish-brown in colour (hence the Afrikaans name rooibok, not to be confused with rhebok). It has lighter flanks and a white underbelly with a characteristic "M" marking on the rear.[7]
Only the male, referred to as the ram, has lyre-shaped horns, which can reach up to 45–92 cm (18–36 in) in length. The female, referred to as the ewe, lacks horns.[7] Both have distinctive black and white stripes running down the rump and tail.[6] The black impala, found in very few places in Africa, is an extremely rare type. A recessive gene causes the black coloration in these animals.[8] The impala has scent glands covered in the fur of the back feet and sebaceous glands on the head.[9]
Ecology [edit]
The impala is an ecotone species "living in light woodland with little undergrowth and grassland of low to medium height".[10] It has an irregular distribution due to dependence on relatively flat lands with good soil drainage and water.[10] While it stays near water in the dry season, it can go weeks without drinking if enough green fodder is available.[10]
The impala is an adaptable forager. It usually switches between grazing and browsing depending on the season. During wet seasons when grasses are fresh, it grazes.[10] During dry seasons, it browses foliage, shoots, forbs, and seeds.[10] It may switch between grazing and browsing depending on the habitat.[11] Leopards, cheetahs, lions and wild dogs prey on the impala.
The impala, like other small- to medium-sized African antelope, has a special dental arrangement on the front lower jaw similar to the toothcomb seen in strepsirrhine primates,[12] which is used during grooming to comb the fur and remove ectoparasites.[13]
Social structure and reproduction [edit]
Females and young form herds of up to 200 individuals. When food is plentiful, adult males will establish territories. Females pass through the territories with the best food resources.[14] Territorial males round up any female herds that enter their grounds,[10][14] and will chase away bachelor males that follow.[10][14] They will even chase away recently weaned males. A male impala tries to prevent any female from leaving his territory. During the dry seasons, territories are abandoned, as herds must travel farther to find food. Large, mixed tranquil herds of females and males form. Young male impalas which have been made to leave their previous herd form bachelor herds of around 30 individuals. Males that are able to dominate their herd are contenders for assuming control of a territory.
The breeding season of the impala, also called the rut, begins toward the end of the wet season in May. The entire affair typically lasts about three weeks. While young are usually born after six to seven months,[15] the mother has the ability to delay giving birth for an additional month if conditions are harsh. When giving birth, the female will isolate herself from the herd,[15] despite numerous attempts by the male to keep her in his territory.[16] The female will keep the fawn in an isolated spot for a few days or even leave it lying out in hiding for a few days, weeks, or more, before returning to the herd.[10] There, the fawn will join a nursery group and will go to its mother only to nurse or when predators are near.[10] Fawns are suckled for four to six months.[10] Males which mature are forced out of the group and will join bachelor herds.[10]
When frightened or startled, the whole herd starts leaping about to confuse their predator. They can jump distances of more than 10 m (33 ft) and 3 m (9 ft) into the air,[17] impalas will explode in a magnificent spectacle of leaping. The impala can reach running speeds in a zig-zag of about 60 km/h (37 mph)[17] on average with the peak on 80 km/h (50 mph),[18] to escape its predators. When escaping from predators, it can release a scent from glands on its heels, which can help it stay with the group. This is done by performing a high kick of its hind legs.[19]
Status [edit]
The common impala is one of the most abundant antelopes in Africa, with about one-quarter of the population occurring in protected areas.[1] The largest numbers occur in areas such as the Masai Mara and Kajiado (Kenya); Serengeti, Ruaha and Selous (Tanzania); Luangwa Valley (Zambia); Okavango Delta (Botswana); Hwange, Sebungwe and the Zambezi Valley (Zimbabwe); Kruger National Park (South Africa) and on private farms and conservancies (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia).[20] The rare black-faced impala survives in Etosha National Park and private farms in Namibia.[1]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group (2008). Aepyceros melampus. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 18 January 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern
- ^ [1]
- ^ Grubb, P. (2005). "Order Artiodactyla". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 673. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
- ^ a b Nersting, Louise Grau; Arctander, Peter (2001). "Phylogeography and conservation of impala and greater kudu". Molecular Ecology 10 (3): 711–719. doi:10.1046/j.1365-294x.2001.01205.x.
- ^ Geraads, D., et al. (2012). "Pliocene Bovidae (Mammalia) from the Hadar Formation of Hadar and Ledi-Geraru, Lower Awash, Ethiopia". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 32 (1): 180–197. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.632046.
- ^ a b Lundrigan, Barbara. "Sproull, Karen". University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- ^ a b Huffman, Brent. "Impala". Ultimate Ungulate. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
- ^ Carnaby, Trevor (2006). Beat about the bush : mammals. Johannesburg: Jacana. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-77009-240-2.
- ^ Armstrong, project editor, Marian (2007). Wildlife and plants. (3rd ed.). New York: Marshall Cavendish. p. 538-9. ISBN 978-0-7614-7693-1.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Estes, R. (1991). The Behavior Guide to African Mammals, Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. Los Angeles, University of California Press. pgs. 158–166
- ^ Smithers, R. H. N. (1983) The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion. University of Petoria.
- ^ McKenzie, A.A. (1990). "The ruminant dental grooming apparatus". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 99 (2): 117–128. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1990.tb00564.x.
- ^ Mooring, M.; McKenzie, A.A.; Hart, B.L. (1996). "Grooming in impala: Role of oral grooming in removal of ticks and effects of ticks in increasing grooming rate" (PDF). Physiology & Behavior 59 (4–5): 965–971. doi:10.1016/0031-9384(95)02186-8.
- ^ a b c Nowak, R. M. (1991). Walker's mammals of the world. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University press.
- ^ a b Estes, R.D. (1999). The Safari Companion. Rev. Ed. Chelsea Green Publishing Company: White River Junction.
- ^ Jarman, M. (1979). "Impala Social Behaviour: Territory, Hierarchy, Mating, and the Use of Space". Beihefte Z. Tierpsychol. 21:1–92.
- ^ a b Trek Nature Impala
- ^ faunographie mammifères Impala
- ^ Impala Facts
- ^ East, R. 1999. African Antelope Database 1999. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.
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