Rhett Ayers Butler

Rhett Ayers Butler

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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:

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1979 stories
Vian Ruma from his Facebook page.

Vian Ruma, Indonesian activist, found dead. Aged 30.

Rhett Ayers Butler 10 Sep 2025
Newly hatched Socorro doves at Chester Zoo. Image courtesy of Chester Zoo.

Lost to feral cats, saved by zoos: The story of the Socorro dove

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Sep 2025
Researcher Anna Gee and GIS specialist Antony Zacarías Morales track tree growth in the TreeMapper app.

After controversies, Plant-for-the-Planet plots its comeback

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Sep 2025
Rainforest in the Western Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Where life has found its richest expression – Amazon Rainforest Day

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Sep 2025

The collapse of tropical dry forests is underway — and few are watching

Rhett Ayers Butler 4 Sep 2025

From beavers to bison: England’s rewilding revolution

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Sep 2025
Sunrise over the Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2025
A puma in the highlands of the Antisana páramos. Image courtesy of Andean Condor Foundation.

Restoring the Páramo: How Ecuador healed its degraded high-Andean ecosystem

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2025
Marc Stalmans. Courtesy of the Gorongosa Project

Marc Stalmans, ecologist who helped restore Gorongosa’s wildlife, dies at 66

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Aug 2025
Donovan Kirkwoord, Curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden. Image courtesy of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden.

Donovan Kirkwood, protector of South Africa’s rarest plants, dies aged 54 in search for one of the world’s most endangered species

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Aug 2025

Deforestation is killing people by raising local temperatures

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Aug 2025
Giant Galápagos tortoises. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The slow demise of turtles and tortoises

Rhett Ayers Butler 27 Aug 2025
Redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area in August 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Ecosystems as infrastructure: Tim Christophersen on how to rebuild humanity’s ties to nature

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Aug 2025
An adult leopard shark at the North Stradbroke Island summer aggregation site in Australia. Photo by MV Erdmann

Can we undo extinction? A growing effort to restore lost sharks

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Aug 2025
Rainbow over Jambi, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

How can we make nature’s wellbeing impossible to ignore? For Natalie Kyriacou, it is the defining challenge

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Aug 2025
Augustin K. Basabose. Image by Allison Shelley for Wild Earth Allies

In eastern Congo’s war-torn forests, Augustin Basabose gave hope to gorillas and people

Rhett Ayers Butler 25 Aug 2025
In the dump, men, women and children are looking for plastic and clothes that they can then sell. The people who work on the dump often wear no protection. It is estimated that 3,000 households make a living from this recycling.

The clothes that never die: How fast fashion is burying Africa in plastic

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Aug 2025
Burning within Tesso Nilo National Park.

Indonesia’s idle land problem

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Aug 2025

How rain can reveal what lives in rainforest treetops

Rhett Ayers Butler 20 Aug 2025
John Landsiedel. Image from his social media.

John Landsiedel, Alaska wildlife biologist and pilot, died on July 25, aged 33

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Aug 2025
Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua at work. Image from his social media.

Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, water bearer to Tsavo’s wild, died June 18, 2024, aged 51

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Aug 2025
Shark meat on sale in Brazil is labeled as “cação,” a generic term whose true meaning is unknown to most Brazilians, surveys show.

Brazil’s shark meat problem

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Aug 2025
Leopard shark. Photo by Alex Kydd.

Can we undo extinction? A growing effort to restore lost sharks

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Aug 2025
Rainbow over the Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

People on nature’s frontlines aren’t waiting for miracles, says author Alan Weisman

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Aug 2025
Dang Dinh Bach speaking.

Dang Dinh Bach: He fought for clean air. Now he breathes through bars.

Rhett Ayers Butler 12 Aug 2025
A full-circle rainbow arcing over a vast oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, carved out of what was once native rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

The case for hope in environmental journalism

Rhett Ayers Butler 11 Aug 2025
Rex Mann. Image courtesy of the American Chestnut Foundation.

Rex Mann, American chestnut evangelist, died July 2, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Aug 2025
Ed McNabb. Image courtesy of the Australia Wildlife Sound Recording Group (AWSRG).

Edward McNabb, pioneer of conservation bioacoustics died on May 7, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Aug 2025
Lúcio Flávio Pinto

Lúcio Flávio Pinto: The Brazilian reporter who wouldn’t be bought or silenced

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2025
Paul-Loiselle at the New York Aquarium. Image courtesy of Julie Larsen/Wildlife Conservation Society.

Paul V. Loiselle, champion of cichlids, died April 15, aged 79

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Aug 2025
Torres in the Amazon in 2024. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

She built a newsroom across 7 countries—Here’s how she did it

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2025
Jayantha Jayewardene. Image from The history of Ceylon tea.

Jayantha Jayewardene, Sri Lanka’s elephant advocate, died July 30, aged 81

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Aug 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage: A group of security guards preventing people from crossing a checkpoint and Fernanda Wenzel Mongabay reporter
Videos
Producing an AI chip requires 10-15 times more energy than making a standard chip.
Articles
The last photo taken between Rhett Butler and Jane Goodall--who shared a friendship for nearly 15 years--at the Forbes Sustainability Leadership Summit. Photo by Sofia Negron.
Podcasts

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