40 Fun Facts About Impalas

The impala is jokingly nicknamed after which fast-food chain, partly because its rump markings resemble its logo?

McDonald's fits twice over: the dark stripes on an impala's rump and tail sketch the chain's logo, and the antelope is one of the most common meals for Africa's big hunters.

Which American car brand named a full-size model after the impala and used the antelope as its logo?

Chevrolet first used the name on a 1956 General Motors show car, then launched the Impala as a top-of-the-line model for 1958.

Kampala, whose name comes from a phrase meaning hill of the impala, is the capital of which country?

Uganda's capital grew around a hill that had been a royal hunting reserve rich in impala. British officials called it the Hill of the Impala, and the local translation of that phrase stuck.

During the rut, male impalas make which surprisingly fierce sound, audible up to two kilometres away?

A roar from a rutting impala begins with one to three loud snorts and ends in a run of deep grunts, given with the mouth open and the chin and tail raised.

Which birds ride on impalas to eat parasites, making the impala the smallest hoofed animal they regularly use?

Oxpeckers clean the places an impala cannot reach for itself, such as the eyelids and forehead. They have even been seen perching on a female's udder to steal her milk.

A fleeing impala can cover roughly what distance in one bound, sailing over bushes and even herd-mates?

10 metres, about 33 feet, is the reach of a single impala leap, and the same jump can lift the antelope nearly ten feet into the air.

An impala's lower front teeth form a comb, like those of lemurs, which the antelope uses for what?

Removing ticks is serious work for an impala: it rakes the tooth comb through its own coat and its companions', and gives the job more time in the seasons when the parasites are at their worst.

An impala's long, ridged horns are usually said to be shaped like which ancient stringed instrument?

A lyre is the standard comparison for the horns' double curve, and the arch has a use: it lets two rivals lock horns so that one can throw the other off.

A startled impala herd explodes into leaps in every direction, a display thought to serve which purpose?

To confuse predators is the likely aim: a hunter faced with antelope bouncing every which way struggles to single one out. The jumping also helps the herd stay together.

Impala is one of the species most often harvested for which South African snack of cured, dried meat?

Biltong made from impala is common because the antelope is among the most frequently hunted on South African safaris.

Among impalas, which animals carry horns?

Males only: female impalas are hornless and a little smaller, while a ram's horns can grow to about 90 centimetres long.

What is an adult female impala called?

Ewe is the term South African field guides use, and they put a typical female at about 40 kilograms against a ram's 60.

The impala's Afrikaans name, rooibok, which is sometimes used in English, translates as what?

Red buck is the literal meaning, a nod to the glossy reddish-brown coat. An older English name, pallah, came from the animal's Tswana name, phala.

Which big cat has been seen dropping out of trees onto impalas, one of its most preferred prey?

Leopard studies list impala among the cat's most preferred prey. It is strong enough to haul a carcass heavier than itself into a tree, out of reach of rivals.

Which endangered pack hunter, also known as the painted wolf, targets impala across central and southern Africa?

African wild dog packs choose impala wherever the two overlap: a species-wide study put it among their five most regularly selected prey, alongside greater kudu and Thomson's gazelle.

Besides the large carnivores, which snakes often prey on impalas, especially the young?

Pythons take young impalas often enough that herds stay on constant alert: when one animal spots danger it snorts an alarm and the whole herd scatters.

A study found impala numbers benefited where which giant animals had thinned woodland into shrubland?

Elephants opened up the woodland and left shrubland behind, which gave impala more to browse on in the dry season.

As a species, the impala holds which status on the IUCN Red List?

Least Concern is the verdict for the species as a whole, though the rare black-faced subspecies is listed separately as Vulnerable.

The impala shares its biological family with which pair of animals?

Cattle and goats share the impala's family, as do sheep, bison and buffalo: cloven-hoofed animals whose horns are bone covered in a permanent sheath of keratin.

A territorial impala ram gathers and guards a group of females, an arrangement known by which name?

A harem is hard-won and tiring to keep: rams largely stop feeding during the rut so they can herd their females and fight off challengers.

Young male impalas forced out of their mothers' groups band together in units known by which name?

Bachelor herds are small, usually fewer than 30 animals, and their members keep a careful distance of nearly three metres from one another.

After a short spell hidden in cover, impala fawns band together with other youngsters to form what?

A nursery group makes it harder for a predator to single out one fawn, and the youngsters in it play, groom and move around together.

The word impala entered English in the 1870s directly from which southern African language?

Zulu supplied the modern name, which replaced pallah, the form English writers had been using since 1802.

Besides grass and leaves, impalas eat the seed pods of which thorny African trees whenever they can?

Acacia pods are a seasonal bonus for an animal that both grazes and browses, a flexible diet that gives the impala a more reliable food supply than specialist antelope enjoy.

Brush-like tufts of black hair just above the heels of an impala's hind legs cover what?

Scent glands on the hind legs are thought to release a signal in mid-air when an impala kicks high, leaving a trail that fast-running herd-mates can follow.

In a feeding impala herd, which animals are generally the most watchful for approaching danger?

Those at the edges keep the sharpest lookout, while an impala feeding in the middle can concentrate on defending its patch of food by lowering its head at neighbours.

Unlike many grazers of the African plains, where does a frightened impala tend to flee?

Into thick bush is the impala's choice, the reverse of most plains antelope, and at times it simply hides among the vegetation instead of running.

The rare black-faced impala lives only in south-western Angola and the north-west of which neighbouring country?

Namibia's Kaokoland is the black-faced impala's stronghold. The subspecies is larger and darker than the common impala, with a dark stripe running up either side of its nose.

Studies found that which disease-carrying African insects take hardly any of their blood meals from impalas?

Tsetse flies, the carriers of sleeping sickness, were found in two separate studies to take only trace amounts of their blood meals from impala.

An impala mother leaves the herd to give birth alone, generally at which time of day?

Midday births are the norm for impalas, and the single calf is hidden in cover straight away rather than following its mother.

During the rut, which part of a territorial impala ram's body tends to be thicker than a non-breeding male's?

Neck thickness goes with a hormone surge: testosterone in territorial rams runs at nearly twice the level found in males without a territory.

Fossils suggest the impala has kept the same basic form for at least how long?

5 million years with barely a change is unusual: over the same period the related hartebeest and wildebeest line branched again and again into very different forms.

Which term describes the springing gait in which an alarmed impala bounces with all four feet off the ground?

Stotting is also called pronking, from an Afrikaans verb meaning to show off or strut.

The impala is the only living member of the genus Aepyceros, a Greek name with which meaning?

High-horned is the genus name; the species name, melampus, means black-footed, after the dark tufts on the hind legs.

Which East African antelope, famous for standing on its hind legs to browse, has colouring much like the impala's?

Gerenuk colouring is strikingly close to the impala's, but the gerenuk has shorter horns and lacks the black stripes on the thighs.

During the short annual rut, impala mating tends to take place between which events in the night sky?

Full moons bracket most of the mating in a rut that lasts only about three weeks, typically in May at the end of the wet season.

An impala's reddish-brown back and tan flanks contrast sharply with a belly of which colour?

White also rings the eyes and covers the bushy tail, which carries a solid black stripe down the middle.

Impala fawns can arrive in any month, but births usually peak with the coming of what?

The rains bring a flush of young grass shoots, which impalas favour in the wet months before turning to herbs and shrubs.

A territorial impala ram marks the boundaries of his patch using which materials?

Dung and urine mark the borders, which the ram defends against rival males; only about a third of adult males hold a territory.

South Africa's air force flew a jet trainer called the Impala, built under licence from which country's design?

Italy's Aermacchi MB-326 became the Impala when South Africa's Atlas Aircraft Corporation began building the trainer under licence in the 1960s.