Running on inspiration from the book ‘Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers’ by Robert Sapolsky, I thought I would address a topic that is brought up by guests repeatedly.
As we pass by herds of impala out on a game drive, guests will often remark how these poor antelope must be the most permanently terrified species of all that walk the earth. There is this belief that they must be constantly flooded by fear. Now of course we cannot ask the impala and so I will never really know for sure but from watching these animals over time I have come to believe that they actually have it all figured out. They are not really “all about to die of a heart attack” as everyone presumes. Here’s why.
A male Impala alarm calls as a female leopard walks past in the distance.
When you watch a leopard stalk a herd of impala, you will notice the impala wandering about, feeding with their heads lowered to the ground but at any one time there will be an impala with its head up scanning the surroundings. It’s not a frantic, frenzied scanning, but rather a lazy sort of awareness. If an impala spots a predator it alarm calls, alerting the rest of the herd to the imminent danger. Based on this new knowledge, the impala becomes all consumed by the threat. It is only at this moment that they actually appear to stress.
A herd of impalas gathered together to alarm at a Leopard walking close by.
They stop feeding, and all stand dead still, eyes focused on the animal and wait. If the lion or leopard gets closer they run back a few meters to a safe distance, turn and face the threat again. Usually, at this point, the predator realises it has been busted and its chances of catching something are seriously slim and it wanders off in another direction to try its luck elsewhere. Within a few minutes of this, the impalas go back to feeding, rutting, or lazily ruminating as if they have totally forgotten that they had nearly lost one of their friends to a hungry lion. In fact, sometimes a predator may wait a while and attempt to re-stalk the same herd, knowing how these animals tend to relax again.
Two male impalas fighting for dominance over females. During the rutting period, predators will take advantage of the more ‘oblivious’ male impala.
Although this may seem silly if you want to survive in the wild, it is in fact rather smart. What they are doing is living simply. They pay attention to the detail of every moment and they deal with the current crisis. As humans, we spend the vast majority of our time in a thought bubble (or at least I do), quite oblivious to what is happening around us. And quite often this is when the real threat of the present moment arrives and we’re too preoccupied to deal with it adequately or to even see it coming.
We don’t stress when we need to, we seem to stress always. Impalas deal with their direct surroundings and immediate needs and are therefore so much more aware of what is happening around them. I’m certainly not saying they don’t get it wrong because we all know that impalas get eaten but if they were too busy daydreaming about tomorrow’s supposed concerns, then a whole lot more of them would be sitting in the fork of the tree in the jaws of a leopard. This is particularly obvious now during the rutting season when all the males are preoccupied with mating and chasing females around all the while looking over their shoulder to check for a fellow male competitor. During this time, the vast majority of kills you find are impala rams because they are so busy racing around fussing and preoccupied.
A beautiful scene of a herd of Impala drinking at a waterhole. Around the water, impala will be on high alert making sure any nearby predators such as crocodiles, lions and leopards don’t get within reaching distance.
What I have learnt from watching these animals as they go about living is not that we should stop planning for the future, being aware of possible dangers or learning from our mistakes, but just that we shouldn’t spend so much time contemplating what has been and stressing about what is to come that we forget to live altogether. Because from where I stand, impalas have this all figured out and the belief that impalas are permanently terrified and stressed may just be our own human projection.
Dan, thank you for your insights on impalas. They are very interesting animals in the Ecco system.
Thanks for this interesting blog and the thoughts about the Impala’s way of life. Sounds really logical.
Well put!!!
HI Dan, it is true I think these antelope are very aware of their surroundings and the predators in the nearby vicinity. The rutting session leaves the ewes waiting for the rams to mate with them and carry the lambs till Nov, Dec,Jan when they starting giving birth. Here on the reserve we saw how the lambs gather together, running around as if they are running a race. Just to start all over again running and chasing each other. The rams are usually very irritated when the rutting session starts and make loud noises when fighting other rams off.
I love your take on this Dan, and you’ve perfectly captured the human condition and how we get lost in thought bubbles and lose touch with what is happening right now, right in front of us!
Great stoic wisdom Dan.
Worry only about what you can control.
Hi Dan, it’s so true generally speaking, I guess the only predators that stress all animals out are humans, for their methods often are not natural. I watched videos of a single impala ram facing wild dogs and fighting back, also while standing in the water and his firm self-defence saved his life. Animals and plants always know what’s best for them, an excellent lesson! Thank you for sharing this