- In 2025, Mongabay published more than 7,300 stories across eight languages and expects to reach over 110 million unique readers, reflecting both the scale of its newsroom and the continued appetite for evidence-based environmental reporting.
- Large audiences, however, are not a proxy for impact: stories traveled widely for many reasons, including timing, platform dynamics, and curiosity, with popularity often uneven and only loosely connected to depth or consequence.
- Because Mongabay measures success by real-world outcomes rather than virality, the most-read articles should be seen as a snapshot of attention, not a ranking of importance, in an information environment shaped as much by chance as by substance.
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 111 million unique readers, a 46% 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 (1,603,402 pageviews)
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.
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 (900,466)
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.
Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost by Shreya Dasgupta (707,698)
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.
97-year-old Galápagos tortoise becomes a first-time mom by Kristine Sabillo (619,815)
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.
Radheshyam Bishnoi, protector of India’s wildlife, died on May 24, 2025, aged 28 by Rhett Ayers Butler (511,090)
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.
Other stories with more than 100,000 website views during 2025:
- The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis by Thamys Trindade (470,286)
- IUCN upholds long-tailed macaques’ endangered status after complaint by Gerald Flynn (467,670)
- Daniel Ole Sambu, who helped lions and people coexist, died at age 51 by Rhett Ayers Butler (337,437)
- Burkina Faso’s women farmers reviving the land with fertilizer trees by Yvette Zongo (333,160)
- Bangladesh to reintroduce captive elephants to the wild by Rhett Ayers Butler (329,228)
- Bangladesh plans to rehabilitate captive elephants in the wild by Abu Siddique (325,875)
- Small cat conservationists hail Uganda’s new Echuya Forest National Park by Sean Mowbray (325,492)
- Hope for tigers grows as Thailand safeguards a key link in their habitat by Gloria Dickie (322,894)
- Blue-and-yellow macaws return to São Paulo skies after 50 years, thanks to flying lessons by Mongabay.com (309,129)
- Harpy eagle confirmed in Mexico for first time in over a decade by Mongabay.com (284,574)
- Rare photos capture fishing cat preying on monitor lizard in the Sundarbans by Mongabay.com (256,519)
- Camera traps capture first glimpse of genetically distinct chimps in southwestern Nigeria by Spoorthy Raman (252,511)
- Migrating elephants get room to roam via community conservation efforts by Hillary Rosner (250,226)
- World Nature Conservation Day: How a large, flightless parrot rebounded from the verge of extinction by Rhett Ayers Butler (242,595)
- Northern Cameroon’s lions are reproducing, but concerns remain by Leocadia Bongben (200,738)
- World Elephant Day: Stories of conservation progress by Mongabay.com (193,570)
- Endangered Species Day: Three animals on the path to recovery by Shanna Hanbury (192,319)
- Rewilding project aims to restore resilience to fire-prone Spain via wildlife by Jeremy Hance (180,145)
- ‘LIFE’ scores map out where habitat loss for crops drives extinction by John Cannon (172,985)
- A protected mangrove forest stands strong as Metro Manila’s last coastal frontier by Mikael Angelo S. Francisco (162,092)
- Saving saiga antelope with cooperation and community in Kazakhstan by Mike DiGirolamo (147,505)
- New cluster of Tapanuli orangutans discovered in Sumatra peat swamp by Junaidi Hanafiah (147,372)
- Golden eagle spotted in England for first time in more than a decade by Shanna Hanbury (146,938)
- Rescued African gray parrots return to DRC forests by Didier Makal (144,475)
- Sharon Haussmann, guardian of rhinos, died on May 31, aged 51 by Rhett Ayers Butler (143,252)
- First review of Amazon plastic pollution finds widespread contamination by Shanna Hanbury (138,285)
- In memory of the Christmas Island shrew by Rhett Ayers Butler (132,603)
- To track a unicorn: Laos team goes all out to find the last saolas by Carolyn Cowan (129,336)
- Kazakhstan to donate 1,500 wild saiga to China after 75 years of local extinction by Shanna Hanbury (127,394)
- Order restored in Indonesia as fishers recapture scores of farmed crocodiles by Yogi Eka Sahputra (122,064)
- Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa’s famous Zambezi River by Ryan Truscott (117,904)
- How Southern African farmers & elephants can both adapt to coexist by Ryan Truscott (114,094)
- In the heart of Bolivia, the mountain that financed an empire risks collapsing by Benjamin Swift (113,138)
- Sniffer dogs may have rediscovered a lost population of Sumatran rhinos by Jeremy Hance (110,106)
- Cape Town’s new plan for baboons: Fence, capture and possibly euthanize by Bobby Bascomb (108,899)
- Indonesian president says palm oil expansion won’t deforest because ‘oil palms have leaves’ by Hans Nicholas Jong (107,794)
- Forest corridors protect Colombia’s critically endangered brown spider monkey by Sean Mowbray (104,681)
- Rare parrots return to Atlantic Forest fragment after decades of silence by Liz Kimbrough (104,053)
Mongabay-Brasil
Peixes deformados expõem o colapso do pulso do Xingu após Belo Monte by Tiago da Mota e Silva (298,000 pageviews)
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.
Mongabay-Latam
Descubren en Ecuador una nueva especie de anaconda gigante en tierras indígenas Waorani by Liz Kimbrough (494,000 pageviews)
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.
Mongabay-Francais
Côte d’Ivoire : Comment des arbres ont changé la vie des cacaoculteurs autour du Parc national de Taï by Gaël Zozoro (52,000 pageviews)
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.
Mongabay-India (Hindi)
माओवाद से निपटने में कहीं विलुप्त ना हो जाए छत्तीसगढ़ का राजकीय पशु वनभैंसा by Alok Prakash Putul (247,000 pageviews)
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.
Mongabay-India (English)
First photographic record of a clouded leopard preying on a Bengal slow loris by Nabarun Guha (1.54 million pageviews)
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.
Mongabay-Indonesia
Sudah Dicoba Selama Berabad-Abad, Mengapa Zebra Tak Pernah Jadi Tunggangan Seperti Kuda? By Akhyari Hananto (1.3 million pageviews)
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.
