Wild Life 04
Nagol
Across the river.
Cheetah · Female · Greater Mara ecosystem, Kenya
Some lives are known through the animal that stays close to us. Nagol's life is known mostly through the people who keep the long record — and through one morning by a river.
She is a female cheetah of the Greater Mara, recorded by researchers as F99. Her mother is Neema. Her brother is Noma. She was born into the same litter that Wild Lives already follows through him.
The research record of her adult life is, more than anything, a record of cubs — litters born, and litters lost. This page holds that record beside the one morning Nature Zi spent with her.
Verified context
Neema's daughter
Nagol was born in the Greater Mara in late 2020, one of the cubs in Neema's litter. Research records give her the identity F99, her mother as Neema (F68), and — further back — her maternal grandmother as Rani (F8) and her great-grandmother as Shakira.
Her brother from the same litter, Noma (M120), has his own record in Wild Lives. The family link is a matter of pedigree, not of company: adult cheetah siblings go their own ways, and there is nothing in the record to say the two travel together now.
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A record of litters
In January 2023, monitoring records note Nagol having serious difficulty moving. She was given anti-inflammatory veterinary support, and afterwards returned to hunting for herself. The records reviewed for this page do not name a diagnosis.
On 27 September 2023 she was recorded with her first litter — four cubs. All four were lost within days. The cause is not established in the records reviewed here.
In September 2024 she was recorded with a litter of five. By late November 2024, all five had been lost. Again, the reviewed records do not establish a cause.
These are the hardest kind of entries to keep — a list of beginnings that did not continue. They are set down here as the record states them, without a story attached.
Field observation · Nature Zi
The Talek River, 27 May 2025
On the morning of 27 May 2025, in the Greater Mara, I followed Nagol with my team. Our driver-guide, Teddy, helped me confirm that the cheetah we were watching was her.
She was alone. We stayed with her as she moved — through open grass, past a pair of giraffes, and down onto the stony edge of the Talek River.
Then she crossed it. Not a slow wade — a run and a leap, clear of the water, onto the far bank. Later, well away from where she had started, she lay down to rest.
Interpretation
What I believed at the time
My understanding in the field that morning was that Nagol was pregnant, and that she was moving to find somewhere quieter and safer to settle — away from lions that were active in the area she had left.
That is what I believed. The photographs show a cheetah travelling and crossing a river. They do not show why.
There is a note in the research record that complicates my reading: on 9 June 2025, about two weeks later, monitoring recorded courtship between Nagol and a male, Ruka. I have not tried to reconcile the two. Both are left here as they stand — my field interpretation, and the later research note — without deciding between them.
Life record
- Name
- Nagol
- Research ID
- F99Mara cheetah monitoring
- Species
- Cheetah — Acinonyx jubatus
- Sex
- Female
- Landscape
- Greater Mara ecosystem
- Life stage
- Adult female
- Born
- Late 2020research record
- Mother
- Neema (F68)research record
- Maternal line
- Grandmother Rani (F8); great-grandmother Shakiraresearch record
- Brother
- Noma (M120)same litter
- Recorded litters
- September 2023 (four cubs); September 2024 (five cubs)none survived, per the records reviewed
- Status
- Living · free-ranging
- First recorded by Nature Zi
- 27 May 2025
A life is made of moments.
Late 2020
Born into Neema's litter
Nagol was born in the Greater Mara, a daughter of Neema (F68) and a littermate of Noma (M120). Research records give her the identity F99.
Verified context
January 2023
Difficulty moving; veterinary support
In January 2023, monitoring records note Nagol having serious difficulty moving. She received anti-inflammatory veterinary support and afterwards returned to hunting independently. No diagnosis is named in the records reviewed here.
Verified context
27 September 2023
First recorded litter — four cubs
On 27 September 2023, Nagol was recorded with her first litter: four cubs. All four were lost within days. The cause is not established in the records reviewed for this page.
Verified context
September 2024
A litter of five
In September 2024, Nagol was recorded with a litter of five cubs. By late November 2024, all five had been lost. The reviewed records do not establish a cause.
Verified context
27 May 2025
Followed to the Talek River — Nature Zi's field observation
On the morning of 27 May 2025, Nature Zi followed Nagol — alone — as she moved through open grassland to the Talek River and crossed it in a running leap, resting later well away from where she had started. Identity confirmed in the field with driver-guide Teddy.
Field observation · Nature Zi
9 June 2025
Courtship recorded with a male (Ruka)
On 9 June 2025, about two weeks after Nature Zi's observation, monitoring recorded courtship between Nagol and a male cheetah, Ruka. It is noted here alongside — not instead of — Nature Zi's field interpretation from 27 May. The two are not reconciled.
Verified context
Still hunting.
Still trying.
What the photographs cannot explain alone.
Field notes on the morning by the Talek River — following a cheetah, reading movement, watching a river crossing, and holding a field interpretation lightly — will be published here as they are written.
A record kept by others
Almost everything on this page that is not from that one morning comes from people who watch this landscape full-time.
The Mara's cheetah monitoring projects hold Nagol's identity, her family, and the long, difficult record of her litters. Teddy, working beside me in the vehicle, is the reason I can say with any confidence that the cheetah by the river was F99 and not another female.
Nature in Wild adds one morning to a record that many people have kept for years.
Photographs
Recent updates
No verified public updates have been added yet.
Records & sources
- Mara cheetah monitoring (Mara-Meru Cheetah Project / Mara Predator Conservation Programme) — Cheetah F99 (Nagol) — identity, family and litter records. verifiedNagol's identity (F99), her mother Neema (F68) and wider maternal line (Rani F8, Shakira), her January 2023 mobility difficulty and veterinary support, her September 2023 and September 2024 litters and their loss, and the 9 June 2025 courtship record with the male Ruka, all come from the Mara's long-term cheetah monitoring.
- Nature Zi (first-hand field observation) — Nagol followed to the Talek River, 27 May 2025. verifiedFirst-hand observation by Nature Zi with his team on the morning of 27 May 2025. Identity confirmed in the field with driver-guide Teddy. Frames DSC04183–DSC06597 in the source archive.
Why This Life Matters
It would be easy to make Nagol's story only about loss — the litters that did not survive.
But the record also shows a cheetah who came through a serious injury and went back to hunting, who kept trying, and who was still crossing rivers and looking for better ground in 2025.
Survival, for a cheetah in this landscape, is not always about running faster. Sometimes it is about finding somewhere safe enough to stop. That morning, that is what she seemed to be doing.
She crossed the river and kept going.
The record of her life is still open.