What Do Impala Eat?

Impala can eat a number of different plant species, depending on what specific area they inhabit and the season. Impala are known as mixed feeders -- they are physically able to both graze and browse, depending on food availability. In the wet season, impala prefer to graze on young, lush grasses; in the dry season, they will browse on shrubs.

Impala have physical traits that allow them to consume and digest their food efficiently. For one thing, Impala are ruminants; they have four-chambered stomachs that allow them to extract as much nutrient as possible from whatever they consume. Further, impala lack upper incisors and canine teeth, and their cheek teeth are folded and ridged. This dental configuration allows impala to clip grasses close to the ground but does not limit them exclusively to this type of eating.

As herbivores, impala take on a primary consumer role in the African savanna food web by eating grasses and shrubs. They consume grasses and shrubs to energy, muscle and fat, and contribute those along the food web: Impala provide an essential resource for these other organisms as well. Carnivores, or secondary consumers, prey on impala. These animals, including leopards, lions and hyenas, require a diet made up of herbivore species like impala to survive.

Food is not always abundant for impalas, so they have adopted behavioral adaptations to compensate for times when food becomes scarce. During the rainy season when food is readily accessed, males establish territories that females move in and out of depending on the availability of food. In dry seasons when food sources become less available, these territories are abandoned by the males or become much smaller and therefore more easily defensible. Impala are partially migratory; some individuals migrate to areas of increased food supply and others do not.