Back home, whitetails feed in the same manner when lower browse dwindles in late winter. Like the dik- dik, the gerenuk can go indefinitely without water. Both are everywhere in the Samburu Reserve, in pairs or occasionally with young. It is breeding season for the impala, and we encounter several small herds. Both sexes are sleek and tawny, with vertical black lines that frame a white rump.
Bucks have long, lyre-shaped horns.
Each group of does is guarded by a lone buck, on constant lookout for rivals, much the way a bull elk guards his harem. Nearby, a bachelor herd bides its time. Antonio explains that rivals will constantly test the dominant buck. When he tires, one will replace him permanently or until he is able to run the rival off. Intent on each other, the impalas let us drive close enough to hear their vocalizations, which sound just like the grunts of our own whitetails.