It’s that time of the year again when impala rams seem to go slightly crazy. Driven by rising testosterone levels linked to shortening day length, rams are beginning to establish and defend territories and harems. What this means is that for 24 hours a day, one can hear strange grunts, snorts and roars across the landscape at Londolozi as rams chase one another about.
They do this to establish hierarchies amongst bachelor herds. Once a ram has separated off from a bachelor herd, it is then a challenge to stake out and defend a territory along with the herds of females within that territory. Severe fights can ensue between rams, sometimes even ending in death from the slip of a dagger-sharp horn. Ultimately though, the aim is to impregnate the ewes, who in six months time will drop lambs again, continuing the cycle of impala life.
Two impala rams lock horns in a particularly violent contest. One can see the ridges around the impalas’ horns; an adaptation to prevent slipping and serious injury.
The trouble for the rams is that they become so focused on trying to herd females and keep ownership of their territories that they become incredibly distracted. They spend less time eating and more time chasing each other; less time grooming themselves and more time thrashing their horns in bushes… They also seem to forget that they are top of the menu for the abundance of predators out here.
An impala ram throwing his horns back and his tongue out while he makes the characteristic growling noise associated with the rut.
There are hundreds of impala spread across the open crests of Londolozi at present. I am not a betting man but if I was I would quite confidently say that if you take five herds at any one time, there is at least one leopard within a few hundred metres busy watching. Take for example the crests opposite the Londolozi camps up towards Ximpalapala koppie – a stretch of about two kilometres. In five game drives in a row, we saw a leopard on each one; four different individuals along that stretch. Every single sighting involved watching an attempt at hunting rutting impala rams!
The Makomsava female watches a herd of impala from a boulder at sunset. She got incredibly close to a pair of impala rams that had wandered into some scattered bush while sparring.
On three different occasions, we saw the Makomsava female trying over and over to catch any unsuspecting impala. With her in mind, we set off one afternoon to see if she had any success throughout the day. We were surprised when a male leopard walked out next to us – it was the Flat Rock male. He walked a large semi-circle with the aim of approaching a herd of impala without being seen. We almost lost view of him as he lay flat in a small patch of grass on the edge of a game trail. It was almost scripted as within about five minutes, two impala rams came trotting along the path straight towards him! We held our breaths excitedly. The powerful male leopard launched out of the grass. He was within two metres of the impala, but missed the antelope!
A very narrow escape for this impala ram. If the leopard had waited half a second longer, the impala would practically have stepped on the leopard…
What made the sighting even better was the fact that the same impala ram seemed to forget about the leopard and not even twenty minutes later, came running back in the same direction. The second time it took a slightly different path and managed to avoid running into the leopard. Probably just by chance.
There is going to be a lot more of this being seen over the next few weeks – a leopard walks past an impala ram in full view.
It’s not only the leopards that will be targeting impala rams at the moment. An Ntsevu Pride lioness stares at a herd that has just begun alarming at her.
So in three days and five consecutive game drives we saw: the Makomsava female, the Nhlanguleni female, the Flat Rock male, and the Xinzele female. None of the leopards were seen at the same time, but all were seen in the same area. Every one was within 50 metres of a rutting impala ram. There’s probably a leopard with a hoisted ram right now that is yet to be found…
The Nhlanguleni female – all attention focused on an impala herd.
Amazing that the Flat Rock male missed that easy dinner!.. What triggers the impala to start the rut.. is it a change in seasons/weather? Do they start rutting at exactly the same time each year… We are coming out hopefully at end of April next year.. is that too early for the rut?
Hi Gillian,
Shortening of day length is what causes the rut to begin. Late April you will already start to see a few rams rutting!
Fantastic leopard viewing.
Pete – I read bio, “Right from his very first bush trip at the age of four, Pete was always enthralled by this environment. Having grown up in the Middle East, Pete’s home-away-from-home has always been a bungalow in the Greater Kruger National Park, where his family had a house – a place that to this day lies close to his heart.
This exposure from a young age instilled a curiosity within him that drove him to study a masters in conservation ecology, a journey which saw him monitoring wild dogs in Kwa-Zulu Natal and managing student researchers in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.” Wonderful blog today!
Poor Impala rams, they are overtaken with that ‘all consuming’ need to mate, herding the most females, being the strongest and most dominant male and as a consequence become extremely vulnerable. Such is the overwhelming power of instinct. Very interesting reading, thank you.
We really enjoy being in the bush during the impala rut! The sounds of growls and grunts, the lip curling and fighting all make for exciting drives. But we’ll be there for the rut next year!
So many opportunities, so few victories by the predators. I’ve read the statistics of their successes and it’s quite shocking they survive as well as they do. It just takes a bit of experience, timing and the perfectly distracted prey. Thank you for the blog.
Well at least for a little while the hunting is a bit easier for the predators. Interesting how the balance is constantly shifting.
These are great pictures. It must be a great time getting them. How long do impala live? Do you all ever tag them to track their movements and life cycles? Also, from viewing all of the blogs, I no longer agree with the idea of the strongest surviving. The plan, if there is one, is that the luckiest make it and it helps if there are scores more of the prey species than of the predator species. So the notion of the strongest surviving is debunked, so far as I can see from all the wildlife videos I’ve seen, including Londolozi’s blogs. I think humankind uses that notion as a way of doing injustice to all creatures, including our own species.
Hi Patrick,
Impala live to about 12-13 years in the wild. This is of course if they are lucky enough to avoid predators like the one pictured in this blog…
Wow, what a breathtaking account! I’m sure due to my own inexperience with all of this in real time and a youth spent watching nature shows, it always surprises me that the prey escapes the predator!! So cool!
An interesting time for you guys to be on Londolozi with all the attempts at hunting going on and Impala rutting. The first time I heard the males rutting I just could not believe it when I was told it was the mild looking Impalas! It sounded like two fierce snarling big cats. Wendy M
Can’t be easy trying to find as many mates as possible while every large predator on Londolozi is targetting you!!
So interesting!
The rut in lmpala offers a life or breed opportunity for males but all at the price & risk of life ,because malnutrition & ignored defence senses make them easy pickings for predators.Wild dog have also syncronised their denning behaviour to coincide with lmpala rut to some extent since there is greater chance for food
not often that leopard misses easy target like that.lmpala was trully not on the menu that day