Rhett Butler

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Founder of Mongabay.

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1074 stories
The Tapanuli orangutan, the world’s rarest species of great ape. Photo © Maxime Aliaga.

Belt and Road Initiative could doom the world’s rarest ape (commentary)

William F. Laurance 2 Aug 2018

Researcher names spectacular new frog after his granddaughter

Mongabay.com 31 Jul 2018

Deforestation skyrockets in the Amazon rainforest

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Jul 2018
Coral reef in the Dominican Republic. Photo by Greg Asner.

Bold initiative aims to protect coral reefs in the Dominican Republic

Greg Asner, Clare LeDuff 16 Jul 2018

How blockchain gaming could benefit wildlife conservation

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Jul 2018
Five years after the Rim Fire, abundant natural tree regeneration in the high-severity patches is contributing to carbon sequestration. Photo by Doug Bevington.

Backfire: How misinformation about wildfire harms climate activism (commentary)

Douglas Bevington 10 Jul 2018
Rainbow over the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Winning farmer support to reduce deforestation (commentary)

Daniel Nepstad, João Shimada 24 Jun 2018

Facebook video shows orangutan defending forest against bulldozer

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Jun 2018
Rangers in neighboring Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Photo for Mongabay.com by Rhett A. Butler.

DRC’s Virunga National Park closes until 2019 due to violence

Mongabay.com 14 Jun 2018
Planet satellite image of coral off Belize's Lighthouse Reef. Taken March 28, 2018.

A global coral reef monitoring system is coming soon

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Jun 2018

New species of Malaysian water beetle named after Leonardo DiCaprio

Mongabay.com 30 Apr 2018
Rainforest on Madagascar's Masoala Peninsula. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Save intact forests for humanity’s sake, urge experts

Mongabay.com 20 Apr 2018
Able to stay underwater for up to three days, the Mary river turtle (Elusor macrurus) uses specialized breathing organs in its cloaca. Photo by: Chris Van Wyk courtesy of ZSL.

List of 100 most unique and endangered reptiles released

Liz Kimbrough 11 Apr 2018
While penguins cannot fly through the air, they are very adept at using their wings to propel themselves through the water like this macaroni penguin. Credit: Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS

How to help penguins (photos)

David Oehler, Megan Maher, Julie Larsen Maher 9 Apr 2018
Rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Tropical deforestation: the need for a strategy adjustment (commentary)

Dan Nepstad 8 Mar 2018
Screen cap from video shot by Akshay Kumar

Epic battle between tiger and sloth bear caught on film

Mongabay.com 3 Mar 2018
Earlier reports based on satellite data suggested that the Danger Islands could be home to several penguin "supercolonies." However, heavy pack ice is common around the Danger Islands, even in austral summer, making difficult to access this area to conduct a comprehensive survey. Credit: Rachael Herman, Louisiana State University, © Stony Brook University

Penguin mega-colony discovered using satellites and drones, raising scientists’ hopes

Mongabay.com 3 Mar 2018
Sudan. Courtesy of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya.

Last of its kind: sole surviving male northern white rhino is gravely ill

Mongabay.com 3 Mar 2018
Mantaray, northwest Galápagos. Photo by Greg Asner / DivePhoto.org

Corals thrive on remotest islands in the Galápagos

Greg Asner, Clare LeDuff 31 Jan 2018
Radiated Tortoise Hatchling (Astrochelys radiata). Madagascar’s radiated tortoises have all but disappeared from their island home due to habitat loss, hunting for their meat, and collection for the pet trade. The females lay from three to 12 eggs that resemble ping pong balls. The hatchlings have beautiful, roundish shells, and at 1½ inches, are miniature versions of their 35 pound parents. Photo &copy Julie Larsen Maher / WCS.

Baby photos of 10 of the world’s rarest turtles from the zoo trying to save them

Avishai Shuter, Don Boyer, Julie Larsen Maher 26 Jan 2018
A coral reef ecosystem in the Sulug Sea, Borneo. Photo courtesy of Greg Asner / DivePhoto.org

Reefscape: A global reef survey to build better satellites for coral conservation

Greg Asner, Clare LeDuff 2 Jan 2018
A close relative of Geckolepis maculata, Gecklolepis megalepis, a new species of fish-scale gecko, was described earlier this year. Photo courtesy of Frank Glaw

Our 10 most popular conservation stories of 2017

Mongabay.com 31 Dec 2017
The newly documented frilled giant Pacific octopus. Photo courtesy of David Scheel

‘New’ giant octopus discovered in the Pacific

Mongabay.com 29 Dec 2017
Prince Harry (right) and Roy Hensberg translocating a rhinoceros in Malawi with African Parks. Photo courtesy of Frank Weitzer / African Parks.

Prince Harry becomes president of conservation group

Mongabay.com 27 Dec 2017
A Gonatus squid eating another squid. Photo © MBARI

Videos unlock secrets of jellyfish as deep-sea killers

Mongabay.com 24 Dec 2017
Chrysops fly. Courtesy of PX Here.

Light pollution lures nighttime pollinators away from plants

Annie Roth 13 Dec 2017
Geographer Tom Smith talks with the Baka in Somalomo village in South Cameroon. Photo by: Trevon Fuller.

Waning plantain yields in rural Cameroon hurt college attendance

Anna Katrina Hunter 7 Dec 2017
Grass-fed beef production generates more greenhouse gas than using feedlots. Photo by Scott Bauer.

Raising beef cattle on grass can create a higher carbon footprint than feedlots, new study suggests

Kimberly Hickok 5 Dec 2017
A herd of capybara, the world’s largest living rodents, go for a swim in Colombia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

Mammal diversity may increase carbon storage in rainforests

Jennifer Leman 5 Dec 2017
2. A pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) leaps from the Samiria River in northeastern Peru. These dolphins, along with scores of fish and crocodilians, suffered from an intense drought in 2010, but most recovered during extreme floods between 2011 and 2015. Photo courtesy of Richard Bodmer and FundAmazonia.

Extreme seasonal changes in Amazon river levels threaten forest conservation by indigenous people

Jeremy Rehm 4 Dec 2017
Hippos have large curved canine teeth and a pair of huge incisors in the lower jaw. Credit: Peripitus via Creative Commons (CC- BY-SA-3.0)

The curious case of the phantom hippo teeth

Laura G. Shields 4 Dec 2017

Plastic in the ocean smells like junk food to hungry anchovies

Vicky Stein 29 Nov 2017

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Diver holding a sun coral
Videos
Student gets a close look at a a helmeted iguana (Corytophanes cristatus) during a Harvard University herpetology course trip to Costa Rica, March 2008. Image courtesy of Don Lyman.
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A Psychropotes dyscrita sea cucumber amid polymetallic nodules on the seafloor of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, located in the northeast Pacific Ocean. Image courtesy of Geomar Bilddatenbank via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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