Rhett Ayers ButlerRhett Ayers Butler is the Founder and CEO of Mongabay, a non-profit conservation and environmental science platform that delivers news and inspiration from Nature's frontline via a global network of local reporters. He started Mongabay in 1999 with the mission of raising interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife.
Today is Wildlife Conservation Day Nature documentaries and conservation campaigns paint an image of Earth teeming with wildlife, but the numbers tell a different story. A February 2023 study, published in PNAS, quantified the biomass of the world’s mammals and revealed an ecosystem heavily dominated by humanity and its livestock. A few striking figures from […]
The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), one of the most authoritative and respected voices in journalism, recently profiled Mongabay. The piece, written by Lauren Watson, provides an in-depth look at how our nonprofit newsroom navigates the challenges of reporting on conservation and environmental issues globally, often in high-risk areas. Key points from the article include:🌍 International […]
Today is International Jaguar Day 🐆 International Jaguar Day is dedicated to a predator whose presence shapes forests, rivers, and plains from northern Mexico to Argentina. The jaguar, Panthera onca, is a creature of paradox: elusive yet emblematic, ferocious yet vulnerable. As the Americas’ largest big cat, its muscular frame and distinctive rosette-patterned coat symbolize […]
Madagascar’s iconic baobab trees, with their towering trunks and delicate canopies, stand as sentinels of a bygone era. Yet their very existence defies ecological expectations. These trees, believed to rely on the now-extinct giant tortoises and lemurs to disperse their seeds, should have vanished alongside their ancient companions. Instead, they endure, thanks to some unexpected […]
In the twilight of their lives, the world’s oldest creatures carry the weight of wisdom, experience, and resilience. Yet, these elders—fish that spawn in abundance, coral that shelters marine life, or elephants that guide their herds—are vanishing. The causes are disturbingly familiar: overfishing, habitat destruction, trophy hunting, and climate change. A new review led by […]
The last wild Round Island hurricane palm, Dictyosperma album var. conjugatum, met its end in a gusty September storm, snapping the final thread tethering this rare tree to its native soil. For decades, it stood alone on its windswept perch on Round Island, a 1.7-square-kilometer dot off the coast of Mauritius. With its pale blue […]
The slender-billed curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, slipped from the world in the way of rare things: gradually, quietly, and irretrievably. Once it coursed over the steppes of Siberia and wintered along Mediterranean shores, its migratory path a delicate thread connecting continents. Its last confirmed sighting, in Morocco in 1995, marked the end of a lineage and […]
Birdsong has long captivated scientists and poets alike, but the evolutionary and ecological forces that shape its dazzling diversity remain incompletely understood. A recent study led by H S Sathya Chandra Sagar sheds light on these mysteries, leveraging a dataset of over 140,000 recordings from 8,450 species—nearly 80% of the world’s avian diversity. The findings, […]
I prepare obituary sketches for high-profile conservation figures and species-on-the-brink in advance, to be held until they’re needed to be developed into full obituaries. The following is one I hope to never publish, though as of today, fewer than ten vaquitas—gentle porpoises no larger than a child—are believed to remain in the wild. 🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬🐬 The […]
X/Twitter has become virtually irrelevant as a source of traffic and engagement for us. In preparation for an upcoming board meeting, I reviewed social media engagement data for Mongabay News (news.mongabay.com), the English-language news section of Mongabay (excluding Mongabay-India). The numbers made clear just how much X/Twitter has declined over the past year, even off […]
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 31% over the past year, reaching the lowest level in nine years, according to data from the country’s national space research institute, INPE. For the year ending July 31, the Brazilian Amazon rainforest lost 6,288 square kilometers (2,428 square miles)—roughly the size of Delaware in the U.S.—marking the […]
Brazil has pledged to restore an expanse of degraded land half the size of the U.K. by 2030, reports Shanna Hanbury. The commitment was made on October 28 at COP16 in Cali in the form of the Planaveg 2.0 initiative, which aims to revive 12 million hectares (30 million acres), approximately half of Brazil’s degraded […]
Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo, known to friends and comrades as “Lobo,” or “Wolf,” was no stranger to the forces that threatened his land and his people. The son of Colombia’s Andes, he belonged to a long line of Indigenous Nasa defenders and was a dedicated educational coordinator and leader. But in a country labeled as […]
The election result is a significant setback for efforts to protected biodiversity and slow climate change. For those committed to defending nature, it may feel as though the walls are closing in. Environmental degradation is intensifying, and America is now expected to pull back from even modest leadership on these critical issues. But giving up […]
215 million hectares of deforested and degraded former forest land are capable of natural regrowth without significant human intervention—an area larger than Mexico. That’s according to a study published last week in Nature. The research, based on high-resolution satellite data analysis across the tropics, identified five nations—Brazil, Indonesia, China, Mexico, and Colombia—as having over half […]
As we await results from today’s election, one of the most important in recent U.S. history, the implications for the planet and its future feel more pressing than ever. No matter who prevails, our work at Mongabay remains profoundly significant. The outcome will undoubtedly influence policy shifts impacting ecosystems, climate action, and biodiversity, potentially altering […]
Tomorrow’s election stands as one of the most consequential in U.S. history—not only for Americans but for the world’s beleaguered ecosystems, endangered species, and ultimately, the future of our planet. The choices voters make will shape the governance of 340 million people and define the fate of Earth’s biodiversity and the fragile web of life […]
Today is World Lemur Day Lemurs, Madagascar’s iconic residents, encompass over 100 species. Exclusively endemic to the island (one species was introduced to a neighboring island), these fascinating creatures have evolved into one of the most diverse primate groups on the planet. To celebrate World Lemur Day, here are five lesser-known facts about these remarkable […]
With United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 16) starting today in Cali, I thought a fitting way to mark Reptile Appreciation Day would be to highlight the blue anole (https://mongabay.cc/4Ycrmm), endemic to the island of Gorgona, located off the Pacific coast of Colombia, not far from Cali. Gorgona, long noted for its biodiversity, hosts this vibrant […]
Today is International Sloth Day 🦥 Sloths, as a group, might be said to epitomize the concept of taking life slowly. The six species, found mainly in Central and South America, spend most of their days hanging from trees, moving deliberately to conserve energy—a strategy shaped by a diet of nutrient-poor leaves. Yet, contrary to […]
Once formidable predators in the world’s coastal and estuarine waters, sawfish—members of the ray family with their distinctive, toothed “saws”—now find themselves on the verge of vanishing. On International Sawfish Day, it is worth highlighting a creature whose form is as memorable as its fate is precarious. Sawfish, which can grow up to 7.6 meters […]
It doesn’t seem like the news is getting much better. What gives you hope for the future? This was one of the questions, Jennifer Wu asked during our conversation on The Founder Spirit podcast. 🌳 A summary of my response:I see progress in many areas—education, poverty reduction, and health outcomes have improved. People are living […]
Yesterday the latest Living Planet Index (LPI) report was released by WWF and Zoological Society of London (ZSL). It paints a sobering picture: wildlife populations have plummeted by an average of 73% over the past half-century. Based on nearly 35,000 monitored population trends spanning 5,495 species, LPI documents a collapse in biodiversity that extends across […]
Ryan Killackey, who died on October 4th, aged 46, was a man of singular purpose. Born in Homewood, Illinois, he came of age with a fascination for nature that would eventually drive him to the farthest reaches of the Amazon rainforest. But his was no simple journey of exploration or adventure; it was a pursuit […]
Orangutans have long captured the human imagination, their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors drawing parallels with our own species. Yet few individuals have had the opportunity to dive as deeply into the minds and lives of these great apes as Gary L. Shapiro. A pioneer in primate communication, Dr. Shapiro’s work spans five decades, encompassing […]