## 3 Results  
Main effects are summarized in Table 1; however, significant interactions were observed between sex and ageing period for pH (\(p\) = 0.028), cooking loss percentage (\(p\) = 0.020), Warner-Bratzler shear force (\(p\) < 0.001), CIE L* value (\(p\) = 0.004), CIE a* value (\(p\) = 0.001), and chroma value (\(p\) = 0.001) of impala meat. Thus, these interactions and not their main effects will be discussed. No interactions were recorded between sex and ageing period for weep loss percentage, CIE b* value, or the hue angle of impala meat (Table 1). Sex did not have an influence on the weep loss percentage of impala meat (Table 1). However, weep loss was influenced (p < 0.001) by the ageing period, with the lowest weep loss percentage recorded on day 2 (3.7 \(\pm\) 0.27%). Thereafter, weep loss percentage increased until day 6 (5.9 \(\pm\) 0.28%), after which a plateau was reached until the end of the ageing period on day 14 (6.4 \(\pm\) 0.27%). Male impala meat had a significantly higher pH (\(p\) = 0.028) than female impala meat on days 2, 4, 6, 10, and 14, with the highest pH recorded for male impala meat on day 14 (5.9 \(\pm\) 0.03) (Figure 1). However, no significant differences between sexes were recorded for days 1, 8, or 12 for pH. Female impala meat was found to have significantly higher cooking loss percentages than that of males on 1, 2, 4, 8, and 14 days _post-mortem_ (\(p\) = 0.020; Figure 2). The highest cooking loss percentage (33.3 \(\pm\) 0.46%) was recorded on day 4 for female impala meat and the lowest cooking loss percentage (29.5 \(\pm\) 0.46%) was recorded on day 1 for male impala meat. No differences were recorded between the sexes for days 6, 10, and 12. A general trend can be observed with female impala meat having slightly higher overall LTL muscle cooking loss percentages than males for the duration of the ageing period. Figure 1: Effect of sex and ageing (days _post-mortem_) on the pH of female and male impala _longissimus thoracis et humborum_ muscles. a–iMeans with different superscripts differ from one another (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.05). Error bars represent the standard error of the means. Figure 2: Effect of sex and ageing (days _post-mortem_) on the cooking loss percentage of female and male impala _longissimus thoracis et humborum_ muscles. a–hMeans with different superscripts differ from one another (\(p\)\(\leq\) 0.05). Error bars represent the standard error of the means. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Parameter**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Sex**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Days Post-Mortortort**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Sex \(\times\) Days Post-Mortortort**} \\ \cline{2-13}  & **Female** & **Male** & **SEM** & \(\mathbf{p}\) & **1** & **2** & **4** & **6** & **8** & **10** & **12** & **14** & **SEM** & \(\mathbf{p}  
Female impala meat had higher (\(p\) = 0.004) L* values than male impala on day 8 and day 10 of ageing. There were no significant differences between sexes for the remaining six time points (Figure 3). Female impala also had higher (\(p\) = 0.001) a* values on day 4 (13.0 \(\pm\) 0.26) than male impala (11.8 \(\pm\) 0.26), whereas males had higher (\(p\) \(\leq\) 0.05) a* values on day 12 (13.4 \(\pm\) 0.26) than females (12.5 \(\pm\) 0.26) (Figure 4). No significant differences between sexes were recorded for days 1, 2, 6, 8, 10, or 14. The interaction (\(p\) < 0.001) between sex and ageing period for the chroma values of impala meat is presented in Figure 5. Female impala had higher chroma values than males on day 1, 2, 4, and 14 _post-mortem_, while males had higher chroma values than female impala on day 12. No interactions were recorded between sex and ageing period for the b* values or hue angles of impala LTL muscles, and there were no differences between sexes (Table 1). However, the _post-mortem_ ageing period had a significant influence on the b* values of impala LTL meat.