J. Michael Fay

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J. Michael Fay (born September 1956, Plainfield, New Jersey) is an American ecologist and conservationist notable for, among other things, the MegaTransect, in which he spent 455 days walking 2000 km across Africa and the MegaFlyover in which he and pilot Peter Ragg spent months flying 70,000 miles in a small plane at low altitude, taking photographs every twenty seconds.

He graduated in 1978 from the University of Arizona, and then joined the Peace Corps working in Tunisia and the Central African Republic. In 1984 he joined the Missouri Botanical Garden. He completed his doctorate on the western lowland gorilla in 1997, while also surveying large forest blocks by aeroplane and working to create and manage the Dzanga-Sangha and Nouabale-Ndoki parks in the Central African Republic and Congo.

He has worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society since 1990, and spent two years with the National Geographic Society in Washington writing up the results from the Megatransect.

He has testified before the US Congress on the need for preservation of wildlfe and habitat.