January 22, 2026
Our long-term monitoring of Mara cheetahs revealed that within 15 years, around 78% of the cheetahs utilized the entire Mara ecosystem, including the reserve, adjacent conservancies, and the northern Serengeti, while 22% did not come to the reserve. Nebaati was one of the latter, raising her cubs in Naboisho and Ol Kinyei conservancies, but her daughters came to the reserve five months after their mother had left them.
The young and timid sisters chose to stay together for another nine months, exploring new territories, primarily along the border with Tanzania. Rangers named one of the sisters Namunyak, meaning “Blessed” in the Maa language, when at age three she returned to Naboisho to give birth. Unfortunately, of the six cubs, one was killed almost immediately by a buffalo, and another by a lion.
Mastering motherhood wasn’t easy – Namunyak had lost her cubs several times in the bush, and rangers worked hard to reunite the family. She eventually raised one son (named Olamunyak) last year. But she gave birth to her next litter in Tanzania. At the very end of December 2025, she arrived at the border of Serengeti NP with four 3.5-month-old cubs – two males and two females. At the age of 2 months, females begin to lead their cubs through the ecosystem, introducing them to different environments so that they learn challenges and benefits of different biotopes and can subsequently survive on their own later.
Over the first six days, the female crossed the border into the Serengeti five times and spent two days on the hillside, going hunting beyond the border. For now, she is a rare visitor to the reserve, and her cubs are still shy, but with time, Namunyak may begin to lead them deeper into the reserve and adjacent conservancies where she was born and raised. Rangers assist the female and her cubs as soon as she arrives in Kenya.
