AN INTREPID photojournalist from Leamington has highlighted the plight of animals whose homes are torn down for palm oil.
Aaron Gekoski’s photo, Palm Oil Survivors – taken in Borneo – recently bagged a Wildlife Photojournalist award.
Aaron captured what he believed was three generations of Bornean elephants crossing a palm-oil plantation – a major driver of deforestation.
The photojournalist explained destruction of their homes squeezed elephants into smaller and smaller pockets of forest causing them to wander into oil palm plantations to feed, where they come into conflict with humans.
As a result attacks on humans are also on the rise prompting the elephants to be poisoned or shot.
And the plight of Bornean elephants is not the only human-animal conflict the nomadic photographer has highlighted.
Aaron – who co-owned a modeling agency before following his dreams of wildlife film-making – has embarked on a series of expeditions from pursuing the ‘turtle mafia’ in Madagascar to an undercover mission to expose Namibia’s annual seal cull.
And in his latest film series, the environmentalist follows a wildlife rescue unit which deals with human-animal conflict around the largest island in Asia.
Visit www.scubazoo.tv to watch Aaron in action and www.aarongekoski.com to find out more about his adventures behind the camera.
