Animal picture of the day: portrait of a cheetah
Portrait of cheetah in Kenya. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Capable of hitting speeds up to 75 miles per hour, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is the world's fastest land animal.…
Picture of the day: horse-and-rider in the Amazon
Colombian cowboy crossing a river on horseback. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Riding a horse in the world's greatest tropical rainforest may be the definition of what kids today call…
Animal picture of the day: the Jesus Christ lizard
Basilisk Lizard (Basiliscus basiliscus) on Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The basilisk lizard walks on water. To escape danger the lizard will race across a…
Picture of the day: beach on a tropical island paradise
Beach on Nosy Mangabe, a tropical island paradise for wildlife enthusiasts. Photo by Rhett Butler. A question commonly asked of me is "What is the origin of the name mongabay?"…
Cute animal picture of the day: baby tarsier
Mother and baby Tarsier in Tangkoko. Photo by Rhett Butler. The spectral tarsier of Sulawesi is one of the world's smallest primates, weighing roughly the equivalent ten U.S. quarters when…
Picture of the day: View of the Borneo rainforest canopy from below through a fisheye lens
View of the rainforest canopy from below through a fisheye lens. Photo by Rhett Butler, unless specified otherwise. The once-majestic rainforests of Indonesia Borneo have been hard hit by logging,…
Animal picture of the day: baby Nile crocodile
Baby Nile crocodile caught for a population study in Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. One day this baby Nile crocodile could reach 20 feet (6 meters) long. Nile crocodiles…
Pictures of the day: pink animals
Hot pink and turquoise planthopper nymph in Suriname. All photos by Rhett Butler, unless specified otherwise. As a follow up to last week's popular "Unusually Blue Animals" post, here are…
Pictures: Researchers to track proboscis monkey in Borneo by satellite
Proboscis monkey male in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary captured by researches. After tranquilisation, the animal is given a full medical check by Dr Senthilvel Nathan and Dr Diana Ramirez…
Animal picture of the day: African wild dog travels 250 miles
A male African wild dog (center) has been recorded traveling 250 miles across two countries. Photo by Wild At Tuli. Scientists have found a male African wild dog that has…
Picture of the day: unusually blue animals
Electric blue gecko from Tanzania. Photos by Rhett Butler. Following up on yesterday's post on the spectacular blue anole from the Colombian island of Gorgona, here is a small collection…
Animal picture of the day: the world’s most blue lizard?
A blue anole on Gorgona Island, Colombia. Photo from Thomas Marent's book, "Rainforest". Used with permission. The blue anole is one of the world's most spectacular reptiles. Found only on…
Animal picture of the day: world’s biggest land animal from the air
An African elephant wades in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Photo by Tiffany Roufs. Even the African elephant, the world's largest terrestrial animal, looks small from the air. African elephants…
Animal picture of the day: the adorable scale-crested pygmy tyrant
Scale crested pygmy tyrant in Costa Rica. Photo courtesy by Rhett Butler (2008). The scale-crested pygmy tyrant is a species of tyrant flycatcher that belongs to the passerine order of…
Animal picture of the day: radio collaring a slow loris
The slow loris before he was caught. It was named 'Krik' which is one of the words used to describe the noises they make, kind of a clicking chirping noise.…
Picture of the day: 4×4 driving down a giant sand dune in Namibia
4x4 driving down a giant sand dune in Namibia. Photo by Nancy Butler (2011). Namibia, a country in Southern Africa located north of South Africa and south of Angola, has…
Animal photo of the day: the brilliant Red-eyed Tree Frog
Red-eyed tree frog. Photo by Rhett Butler (2011). The red-eyed tree frog (Agalychnis callidryas) is one of the most colorful and best-known tree frogs (it is often used in advertisements).…
Animal picture of the day: spectacular blue and turquoise beetle in New Guinea
Eupholus schoenherri weevil near Manokwari in West Papua. Photo by Rhett Butler (2010). New Guinea is home to some of the world's most unusually colored weevil species. This particular species,…
Animal picture of the day: snow leopard spotted in Afghanistan
Snow leopard in the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan caught on camera trap. Photo by the Wildlife Conservation Society (2009). A new study documents a healthy population of snow leopards in…
Animal picture of the day: humpback whale breaching
Humpback whale breaching in Alaska. Photo by Rhett Butler. The humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a conservation success story. Decimated by centuries of whaling, most populations have risen since a…
Picture of the day: waterfall on the endangered Xingu river
Kayapo children playing in a waterfall in the Xingu River. This site up upriver from the Belo Monte dam. © Cristina Mittermeier/ International League of Conservation Photographers (iCLP). Characterized by…
Animal picture of the day: a cicada (like the one used in ice cream) in Oregon
Cicada (Tibicen species) in southern Oregon. Photo by Rhett Butler (July 2011). Cicadas are insects found worldwide, including the United States. There are more than 2,500 species globally. Cicadas are…
Animal picture of the day: the knobbed hornbill of Sulawesi
Sulawesi knobbed hornbill. Photo by Rhett Butler (2011). The knobbed hornbill (Aceros cassidix) is found on Sulawesi and surrounding islands. Like other Indonesian hornbill species, the knobbed hornbill feeds primarily…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- Fewer fish and more rules lead to illegal catches, Italian fishers say
- Fishing by dodgy fleets hurts economies, jobs in developing countries: Report
- Warming seas push India’s fishers into distant, and more dangerous, waters
- No protection from bottom trawling for seamount chain in northern Pacific
Amazon Conservation
- Deforestation haunts top Peruvian reserve and its Indigenous communities
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
- Brazil boosts protection of Amazon mangroves with new reserves in Pará state
Land rights and extractives
- Women weave a culture of resistance and agroecology in Ecuador’s Intag Valley
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
