Midsummer
As we approach mid summer, the bush is resplendently lush and green from the significant amount of rain that has fallen in November.
As we approach mid summer, the bush
is resplendently lush and green from the significant amount of rain that has fallen in November.
The impala lambs abound, beautiful and terrifyingly fragile, vulnerable to so many different species of predators. Our guests have already witnessed an African rock python swallowing one luckless baby. They need to keep an eye on the sky in case a Martial eagle might be on its killing swoop.
If they make it to adulthood, at approx 4 years they have done very well and may even get to 12 years old.
Grooming is a serious business and they are the smallest antelope to allow oxpeckers to feed on them. During the rut , the males are too busy to groom themselves and their normal tick load increases by a factor of 6 which would be more without their feathered assistants. Impala allo groom and self groom using their modified loose lower incisors as an effective comb.
Uniquely Impala are regular mixed feeders switching from grazing to browsing at will.
Accomplished athletes capable of leaps of 12m long and 3m high and a top speed of 70km/hr.
It is hard to imagine that before the 1920’s there were no impala West of Orpen gate in what is today the Greater Kruger, including our own Balule Conservancy. Now they are by far the most populous antelope species throughout the entire Kruger National Park.
