Mongabay’s most popular stories of 2025

In 2025, Mongabay published more than 7,300 stories across eight languages. The volume reflects a newsroom that has expanded geographically and editorially, covering issues that range from local land conflicts to global climate finance. It also reflects a belief that detailed, evidence-based reporting on environmental issues can still attract attention at scale, even as audiences fragment and news competes with every other demand on time.

By year’s end, Mongabay expects its reporting to reach more than 110 million unique readers, a 44% increase over 2024. That figure captures visits to the website alone. It does not fully account for circulation through social media, messaging apps, or republication by more than 100 partner outlets worldwide. Reach, however, is not impact. It is simply exposure. What readers do with information, and whether it shapes decisions or outcomes, is a separate question.

The articles that drew the largest audiences this year did so for many reasons, reflecting a mix of editorial ambition, reader curiosity, and the often unpredictable mechanics of attention. Some coincided with news cycles or moments of heightened curiosity. Others benefited from platform dynamics that reward novelty or surprise. A few were lightweight by design. Others, including obituaries and long-form reported pieces, carried weight that is not easily captured by traffic metrics. Popularity, in this sense, is uneven and sometimes arbitrary.

That distinction matters because Mongabay’s editorial benchmark is impact, not virality. The organization tracks readership and distribution, but it also documents qualitative outcomes: whether reporting informed policy debates, supported legal action, redirected funding, or strengthened communities defending their rights. Those effects often surface slowly and unevenly, long after the initial spike of attention has passed.

The list that follows should be read with that caveat in mind. These were the most-read articles of the year, not a ranking of influence or importance. They offer a snapshot of what was popular, not a definitive measure of what mattered most. In an information environment shaped as much by chance as by substance, the distinction is worth keeping in view.

Mongabay Global English

Indonesia’s 1st Javan rhino translocation ends in death, in conservation setback by Basten Gokkon

Indonesia’s first attempt to translocate a Javan rhino ended in tragedy when Musofa died days after being moved within Ujung Kulon National Park, with officials citing pre-existing health problems linked to severe parasitic infection. Conservationists said the loss underscores both the risks of intervention and the urgency of continued action to protect a species imperiled by extremely low numbers and limited genetic diversity.

1.6 million pageviews

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

Donovan Kirkwood, curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, died at 54 after a fall while surveying one of the world’s rarest plants in South Africa’s Jonkershoek Mountains. His work helped redefine plant conservation by focusing attention and resources on degraded landscapes where critically endangered species persist at the margins.

901,000 pageviews

97-year-old Galápagos tortoise becomes a first-time mom by Kristine Sabillo

A 97-year-old Galápagos tortoise named Mommy became the oldest recorded first-time mother of her species after successfully producing offspring at the Philadelphia Zoo. Paired with a 96-year-old male through a coordinated conservation breeding program, the milestone offered a rare boost for a long-lived and vulnerable species.

630,000 pageviews

Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost by Shreya Dasgupta

Several species were formally declared extinct in 2025 following updated assessments by the IUCN Red List, confirming losses that in many cases had gone unnoticed for years. Their designation closes the door on recovery for some, while leaving open, in rare cases, the possibility that remnants persist beyond scientific detection.

522,000 pageviews

Radheshyam Bishnoi, protector of India’s wildlife, died on May 24, 2025, aged 28 by Rhett Ayers Butler

Radheshyam Bishnoi, a lifelong wildlife protector shaped by the conservation ethics of India’s Bishnoi community, was killed at 28 while traveling to stop poaching in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert. His work — from safeguarding the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard to mobilizing community-led conservation — left an outsized legacy in one of India’s most fragile ecosystems.

507,000 pageviews

Mongabay-Brasil

Peixes deformados expõem o colapso do pulso do Xingu após Belo Monte by Tiago da Mota e Silva

Deformed fish were increasingly reported in Brazil’s Xingu River downstream of the Belo Monte dam, prompting independent monitoring and local fishers to warn of a possible ecological collapse linked to altered flood pulses, pollution, warmer waters, and food scarcity. Indigenous leaders, riverine communities, and scientists criticized the dam’s operating rules — described by Brazil’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office as driving “ecosystem collapse” — and called for a new flow regime to restore the river’s ecological functions.

298,000 pageviews

Mongabay-Latam

Descubren en Ecuador una nueva especie de anaconda gigante en tierras indígenas Waorani by Liz Kimbrough

A new species of giant anaconda was discovered in Ecuador’s Amazon within the Baihuaeri Waorani Indigenous territory, including a female measuring 6.3 meters long, with reports of even larger individuals. The finding highlighted both the ecological importance of apex predators and the mounting threats they faced from deforestation, hunting, and oil pollution.

494,000 pageviews

Mongabay-Francais

Côte d’Ivoire : Comment des arbres ont changé la vie des cacaoculteurs autour du Parc national de Taï by Gaël Zozoro

Agroforestry transformed cocoa farming around Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park, boosting yields for growers while restoring tree cover that protects plantations and surrounding forests. Backed by REDD+ emissions-reduction payments, the model improved rural incomes, eased pressure on the park, and positioned the country as a growing player in voluntary carbon markets.

52,000 pageviews

Mongabay-India (Hindi)

माओवाद से निपटने में कहीं विलुप्त ना हो जाए छत्तीसगढ़ का राजकीय पशु वनभैंसा by Alok Prakash Putul

Plans by India’s Central Reserve Police Force to establish a jungle warfare college inside the Pamed Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh raised alarm that counterinsurgency efforts could further endanger the state’s already imperiled wildlife.

247,000 pageviews

Mongabay-India (English)

First photographic record of a clouded leopard preying on a Bengal slow loris by Nabarun Guha

The first photographic evidence of a clouded leopard preying on a Bengal slow loris was recorded in Dehing Patkai National Park in Assam, offering rare insight into the elusive predator’s diet and behavior. Conservationists said the image underscored the ecological importance of protecting one of India’s most biodiverse forests, home to eight wild cat species.

1.54 million pageviews

Mongabay-Indonesia

Sudah Dicoba Selama Berabad-Abad, Mengapa Zebra Tak Pernah Jadi Tunggangan Seperti Kuda? By Akhyari Hananto

Despite centuries of attempts, zebras were never domesticated like horses because their reactive temperament, unstable social structure, and vulnerability to stress made them difficult to control and breed in captivity. Studies and historical efforts showed that traits essential to domestication could not be reliably passed on, underscoring that not all animals were suited to human use.

1.3 million pageviews