By Maxime Lapidaire

For some reason our collared cheetah Nataanywe shows herself to the Samburu tourist just a few days before ACK staff arrives in the reserve... but she hides when we are around. ACK had not seen her for several months. In June ACK staff did see two cheetahs in the Samburu National Reserve. These two, seeminly young, cheetahs were very shy. A few days later one of the drivers in the reserve saw them again on a kill.

The day before ACK staff arrived in July Nataanywe was seen. But ever since then, cheetahs seemed disappeared from the Reserve. After seven days of searching and talking to other drivers and tourist, no one has seen any signs of our collared cheetah. There were tracks, but since we now know that the collar has stopped transmitting... it is like looking for a needle in a hay stackd! Our team left the Reserve in te end of July tired and feeling a bit defeated.

We did have the opprotunity to work with Dr. Likonowalla and the Ewaso Lions Team to remove a collar from a young male lion that the Ewaso Lions Team had been tracking for several months. Ewaso Lions staff assisted us in our search for Nataanywe... but still no luck. We know she was seen on the day we arrived and it is our hope that her sudden departure will result in a few little fluffy toddlers when she returns to her past range in the Reserve.