05/23/2023
The cheetah population in the Maasai Mara Ecosystem is not stable and fluctuates over the years and throughout each year. In some years, recruitment exceeds the death rate, or vice versa. Once every few months, we observe new individuals that come from the unprotected areas around the Mara or from Tanzania. Since October 2022, 13 new cheetahs have appeared in the Mara: 12 males and one female. At the Sand River area of the reserve, we observed a coalition of two young males, a coalition of 3 – in Ripoi conservancy, and 4 different single extremely shy males appeared in the following conservancies: Olarro, Olderkesi, Naboisho and Enonkishu. In the Mara Triangle, from July 2022 to March 2023, 4 new cheetahs were observed – 3 males and one female. In October 2022, a coalition of 2 very shy males briefly appeared on the Siria escarpment. In July 2022, a young male was first sighted on the Serengeti border and later named Mpaka (“Border”). In addition to them, from October 2022 to date, 4 adult cheetahs have been seen: Risasi with cubs, her brothers Ruka and Rafiki (who spend a lot of time in the Serengeti), as well as the male Oloti. Moreover, in March, a new female, named by the Triangle rangers Naado, settled in the Mara Triangle. Naado is the daughter of Siligi and is the only one out of 7 cubs, who survived to independence from that litter born in October 2019. She is currently in the last trimester of pregnancy. The various conservation activities that the rangers are constantly performing in the Mara Triangle, including successful cheetah monitoring program, allow the cheetahs to feel more comfortable, and their movements are influenced not by anthropogenic, but by natural factors – such as the distribution and composition of other predators and prey, as well as weather conditions. The fact that a pregnant female has been in Conservancy for a long time is very inspiring.
