Rhett Ayers Butler

Rhett Ayers Butler

Website

About

Rhett Butler is the founder and CEO of Mongabay.

Rhett founded Mongabay out of his passion for wildlife and wild places.

He has traveled widely in the tropics and enjoys photography, hiking, and scuba-diving.

LinkedIn Profile | Personal website | Contact

Some background on Mongabay's origin:

RSS
2169 stories
A leopard cat in India’s West Bengal state. India’s population of leopard cats is not contiguous, with individuals in the western part of the country isolated from the rest of the leopard cat’s range. Image by Soumyajit Nandy via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Asia’s overlooked leopard cat

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 May 2026

Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 May 2026
The plight of koalas was a factor in creating this new national park, but 66 threatened animals and 37 threatened flora species are also found here.

Great Koala National Park tests whether protected forests can stay connected

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 May 2026
Aerial view of a cargo ship. Photo by Cameron Venti / Ocean Image Bank

The most underfunded climate opportunities may be at sea

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 May 2026
Mike Salisbury in Tanzania in the 1970s. Photo courtesy of BBC

Mike Salisbury, wildlife filmmaker who made plants behave like characters, has died, aged 84

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 May 2026
Givaldo Santos Kaiowá

Givaldo Santos, Kaiowá and Guarani leader, was killed on May 1st, aged 40

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 May 2026

Norlan Pagal, fisherman and guardian of Tañon Strait, died on May 14th, aged 56

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 May 2026
Merlin van Lawick speaking at Jane Goodall's celebration of life in Washington D.C. on November 12, 2025. Photo by the Washington National Cathedral.

Jane Goodall’s grandson on hope after loss

Rhett Ayers Butler 18 May 2026
Monica Montefalcone. From her social media.

Monica Montefalcone, leading seagrass scientist, dies in Maldives diving accident, aged 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 May 2026
A 2004 mapping expedition organized by the Trio and the Amazon Conservation Team in Suriname. Image courtesy of the Amazon Conservation Team

Whose map counts in conservation? The rise of participatory mapping

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 May 2026

Paying people to see wildlife: Inside a $1-per-hectare conservation experiment in Borneo

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 May 2026

Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 May 2026
Mama ring-tailed lemur with baby in Anja, Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

A Mother’s Day lesson from a digger wasp

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 May 2026
Tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus sp) in Madagascar. Photo by Elise Paietta

In one forest, native rats remain. In another, only invaders.

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 May 2026
Ted Turner at CNN. Courtesy of the Ted Turner Foundation

Ted Turner, a media mogul who tried to repair the land

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 May 2026
Sir David Attenborough By BBC - Passion Planet

At 100, David Attenborough’s message is no longer just about wonder

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 May 2026
A forest in Costa Rica. The country is considered a pioneer in a forest protection mechanism that has helped drastically reverse deforestation. Image by Rhett Butler.

Can listening to a forest reveal whether it is ecologically healthy?

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 May 2026
Tierney Thys with sunfish. Photo by Mike Johnson / Earth Window

Tierney Thys, marine biologist and interpreter of the sunfish

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 May 2026
RJ Nichole Ledesma. Via Facebook.

RJ Nichole Ledesma, chronicler of unsettled ground on Negros Island, was killed last month. He was 30.

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 May 2026
Cannon hiking through Dogon country in Mali, 2011. Image courtesy of Anne-Claire Benoit.

Why evidence matters in environmental journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 May 2026
Raffles’ banded langur, courtesy of Andie Ang.

Singapore’s population of Raffles’ banded langur has doubled

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 May 2026
The Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026
A young ring-tailed glider (Tous ayamaruensis). Image courtesy of Arman Muharmansyah.

Species thought extinct for thousands of years ‘rediscovered’ thanks to Indigenous knowledge

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2026
Amazon Mining Watch leverages artificial intelligence to map the impact of gold mining activities across all nine Amazonian countries.

A search engine for the planet opens to the public

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026
Nickel mining on Manuran Island. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.

Deforestation is surging in Indonesia

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026
"Flower Power" was taken by Bernie Boston The Washington Evening Star on October 21, 1967, during the March on the Pentagon by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. It shows a protester placing a carnation into the barrel of an M14 rifle held by a soldier of the 503rd Military Police Battalion (Airborne).

When protest works: Examples where activists have successfully pushed for change

Rhett Ayers Butler 28 Apr 2026
Luis Arranza at Dzanga Bai. Photo by Nuria Ortega

What it takes to make conservation work in Central Africa: Luis Arranz’s 46-year journey

Rhett Ayers Butler, David Akana 27 Apr 2026
Peter H. Raven at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Photo by M. Jacob.

Peter Raven, botanist and advocate for biodiversity, has died, aged 89

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Apr 2026
Don Janssen with an okapi. Courtesy of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).

Don Janssen, wildlife veterinarian who argued that caring for animals begins with people

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Apr 2026
Nan Schaffer. Photo courtesy of Universiti Malaysia Sabah

Nan Schaffer, veterinarian who helped unlock the science of rhino reproduction, has died, aged 72

Rhett Ayers Butler 24 Apr 2026
Tufted-tailed rat (Eliurus sp) in Madagascar. Photo by Elise Paietta

Why forest conservation is also public health

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Apr 2026
George Schaller in Alaska. Photo courtesy of the George B. Schaller Archive.

How do you write the life of someone who avoided the spotlight? Miriam Horn on her biography of George Schaller

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Apr 2026

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Giant African Harvester Ant
Videos
A rhododendron tree with the snow-capped Himalayan mountains in the background.
Articles
Podcasts

you're currently offline