In the whole of the Mara?? Is that really true??? That's what the Big Cat Diary reckoned anyway. It all sounds such a fragile grasp they have there.

Seems as though it might be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack on a July safari.

That may not include non-park property. Some of the best Mara cheetah viewing that I've had was north of the park. I'm trying to offer some optimism for both your trip and the species as a whole.

I thought you were going to write that you SAW 45 cheetahs on your trip

<b>In the whole of the Mara??</b>

In the book &quot;Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains&quot; the researcher guesstimates 110 on the plains and 100 in the woodlands for Serengeti, and since Mara is much smaller than the Serengeti then maybe 45 isn't too far off. Maybe even a bit high ...

<b>Seems as though it might be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack on a July safari.</b>

Many are habituated (used to people) and they hunt during the day, so most good guides will be able to put you in a spot to find them.

In the Serengeti we've found them pretty much every day that we specifically lQQked for them, with high days of 5, 6 and 10 (and several days with only 1-3 too). We saw 20 in 12 days recently despite only lQQking for them on three different game drives.

You will likely see them, especially if you let your guide know they are an important species to you, so don't despair.

Bill

i think i need to make reservations asap

May you find all 45 Hari!

Lynn....we need to take Richard along for the good luck!!!

He could start a new company Rent-a-Richard!

We saw plenty of cheetahs in the Mara in August(especially enjoyed Honey and her cubs near Kichwa Tembo airstrip)

P.S. I am afraid we are talking to ourselves.

Ive just returned from the Mara where the recent rains have hindered viewings through the long grass. Nevertheless we saw 2 cheetah's the day we searched for them - pity they weren't the habituated ones, I felt sorry for them as about 5 vehicles surrounded them until finally one chirruped plaintively for his brother. Exhilarating and sad all at once.. Yvonne

Im available for rent... very cheap... just have to take me to Kwando camps...

Richard,

You need to return this june!!! I can use your good luck while i'm at Lebala....

Hari

At a quick glance that actually sounds like an appropriate density. Masai Mara is 1,510 sq km which works out to 33.5 sq km per cheetah. Coalitions of males are thought to use ranges from 40 - 80 sq. km while females and solitary males have ranges from 50 all the way to 1,000 sq km. Some cheetah ranges will certainly overlap (especially males and females) but then again the entire area of the Mara is not likely good cheetah habitat either so the useable range is probably smaller than the area of the park. A very cursory overview but it would appear that the habitat is very rich for cheetah allowing a good density of cats occupying smaller than average ranges.

Biggest issue for cheetah is they almost went extinct long ago resulting in a genetic bottleneck, meaning there is very little diversity of genes in each individual thus if one cat is succeptible to a disease virtually all of them will be. They have basically lost the diversity to adapt as a population.