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The Impala. Photo Åke Sjöström © The Impala is in my opinion one of the most beautiful antelopes in Africa. You find the impala in three basic configurations: The breeding heard that contains mostly females and young impalas and sometimes up to 1-½ year old males. In most cases the breeding heard have a dominant male going like a satellite around the heard or close by the heard. I have often watched a heard of what I believe to be only females for as long as one hour in fairly open terrain without seeing a dominant male and suddenly he appears from nowhere. He grunts a little and show that he is the boss and then he could disseaper as fast as he showed up. So have patience if you have stalked into or close to a female heard, as the big boss is most likely around. I have also noticed that he sometimes is a bit careless when he tells the ladies “who is you daddy” and that is when you might get a good shooting opportunity. Also there is often a good opportunity to harvest a younger male that in my opinion is a magnificent trophy when you walk and stalk. The bachelor heard contains male impala only, often a mix with young males up to the ones that is almost ready to challenge a male that have his “harem”. I have run across bachelor heards of only three older males and up to twelve males in different ages and I am sure you will find them in all kinds of configurations. The single male. I have ran into single males that is not even close to a breeding heard and the have always been a good trophy. Why they are single I don’t know, it does happen sometimes. Behavior: They often graze/browse through the terrain in a certain direction so if you are in their path just sit tight and the will most likely come to you. Sometimes I have found that they suddenly run like the wind in a different direction from where they were going in a manner that indicates some danger is close by. If you don’t hear any warning signal sit tight because the will most likely only run 100 meters and start feeding again. This is often done on a regular basis without any threat being present. The first time this happened to me I was frustrated as I thought that I did something wrong. Often a second and a third “crazyrun” will occur in just minutes and they quite often end up at the same place where thy started their “crazyrun”. The impala is one of the fastest stringjumpers I have come across. I had a totally relaxed grazing dominant male 29 meters from me when I let the arrow fly, aiming for his heart. When the arrow reached 29 meters in less than a third of a second, his heart was not there anymore. He dove under the arrow as it passed through air only, when the arrow passed him he jumped up and away. I stood there and at first I could hardly believe what I just saw, but then I just smiled, happy to have witnessed such an amazing moment. I lifted my hat and humbly bowed in the direction where he had long disappeared. His speed and reaction kicked ass with my high-tech compoundbow. The impala is easily spooked but often calms down fast, so if you make a small mistake they might just move away a short distance and keep feeding, give them 10/15 minutes and begin a new stalk.   Facts.     Name in Africaans:   Rooibok Latin name:   Aepyceros melampus Horns :   Only the male carries horns. Weight:   Male up to 82kilos, female up to 52 kilos. Feeds on:   Browser and grazer. Active:   Most active in morning and evening, but it is not unusual with activity anytime of day. More activity is seen in midday if the weather is cloudy and not so hot.