Males reach a height of 2.5 to 3 feet and weigh 116 to 168 lbs.  Females are smaller – height of 2.2 to 2.8 feet and weigh 88 to 116 lbs.  Horns are found on the male only and measure between 1.4 and 3 feet, are S-curved, strongly ridged and tips are far apart.  Color: two tone brown with a reddish brown saddle sharply divided from the tan lower torso and legs.  Belly, throat, lips, line over eye, inside ears and under tail portions are white.  Black markings include vertical stripe down tail and both thighs, fetlocks, ear-tips with or without a forehead patch and line from eye corners.  Scent glands are found in the fetlocks on the rear feet beneath the black hair tufts.  Sebaceous glands are found in the forehead of the dominant males.

Impalas are predominantly grazers while the grasses are green and growing.  It becomes a browser of foliage, forbs, shoots and seedpods at other times.

Day active, impalas spend most of the night lying down, mainly ruminating on open terrain.  During the day they graze, usually ruminating in the shade to rest.

When it rains, impalas stop feeding, bunch closely together and stand with their backs to the wind.  High winds often stimulate outbreaks of high bounding, chasing and roaring.

The impala is known for its high leaps (nearly 10 feet high and 36 feet long).  Apparently this is an anti-predator tactic.  It increases the difficulty of selecting a quarry.  Not only are the leaps upward but also to one side then the other, often passing or cutting in front of one another.

Impalas are seasonally or perennially territorial, gregarious and sedentary.  Female clans vary in size and composition daily.  Six to 15 or 20 represent a minimal average.  Herds of 50 to 100 are common.  They live in discreet clans within traditional home ranges.  Daughters stay in their natal range, however sons leave by the time they are 4 years of age.  Female herds lack distinct peer or family subgroups.  Maternal bonds are dissolved quickly after weaning.  Apart form the occasional head-butting and reciprocal grooming, females do not come in physical contact with clan members.  Even though there is no sign of rank within a clan, herds are very cohesive.  Activities are closely synchronized.  Females outnumber males 1.5 or 2:1 in adult populations.

Most mating occurs during the rainy season with the peak at the end of the rainy season.

Males are territorial in some areas, not so in others.  Territoriality is closely linked to breeding season and climatic region.

Actively territorial males invest up to 25% of their time rounding up and attending females.  This is time otherwise spent feeding and ruminating.  The more females that come and stay, the more energetically costly tending them becomes for the male.  A male will try to prevent females in estrous from leaving his territory.  If, however, a female is determined to leave, once crosses over out of the attending male’s territory, there is little the male can do to prevent her and the rest of her clan from leaving.

Male roaring and visual displays are so colorful that communication by sense of smell has received very little notice.  Both sexes have equally developed metatarsal glands that suggest that secretions diffuse through the air and serve some general social communication.  Roaring is preceded by 1 to 3 explosive snorts.  Then 2 to 10 guttural grunts are issued forth.  At the height of the rut at Sengwa, 180 roaring displays were observed in one hour on a moonlit night.

After a gestation period of 194 to 200 days, a female isolates herself to deliver typically one calf in cover.  Young weigh between 10 to 15 lbs. at birth.  After 1 to 2 days fawns follow moms back to the herd where they join a crèche of other small calves.  Juveniles rest, move, play and groom each other joining the herd only to nurse or when predators are near.  At 4 ½ months they are weaned.  Males join bachelor herds by the time they are 8 months of age.  Bachelor herds are smaller than female herds.

Agonistic behaviors include dominance and threat displays (walking stiffly in the erect posture), defensive and submissive postures and fighting.

ntipredator behaviors include the alert posture, alarm snort, flight intention movement and flight with or without the high-bounding leaps.

The impala not only changes its diet based on the season, but also adapts to different habitats by being mainly a grazer in one area and a browser in another area.

Impalas must have water available to drink.  If they have access to green vegetation, then they can go without drinking.

Impalas exhibit a gait unique to all other antelope.  When landing from a high-bounding leap, the impala kicks its hindlegs nearly to vertical and lands on forelegs, rebounds, brings hindquarters down before landing again.

There is no evidence that more than one species of this genus existed at anytime in the past.

The impala is an edge species.  It prefers light woodland with little undergrowth and grassland of low to medium height grasses.  It is also dependent on freestanding water, soils with good drainage, firm footing and no more than moderate slope.

There are three subspecies: Southern impala (Aepyceros melampus melampus), Black-faced or Angola impala (Aepyceros melampus petersi) and Eastern impala (Aepyceros melampus rendilis).

The genus Aepyceros is Latin for “high horns” referring to the males long, lyre-shaped horns.  The species name melampus is Greek for black-footed, referring to the tufts of black hair on the heels of the hindlegs.

n Swahili, the impala is called swala pala.