Animosity: Human-Animal Conflict in the 21st Century

By Aaron Gekoski and Captain Paul Watson

The world's wildlife is in crisis.
Globally, animals are being traded, hunted, poached, consumed and exploited to the point of extinction. This is their story, as told through the lens and eyes of Aaron 'Bertie' Gekoski, an internationally acclaimed environmental photojournalist, who documents human-animal conflict in the most inhospitable places on Earth.
ANIMOSITY is a collection of powerful photographs and absorbing tales from the frontline of conservation: from Cambodia's dog-drowning dungeons and West Africa's voodoo markets, to cruel Wildlife Tourism Attractions and the shadowy world of the exotic pet trade.
Conflict, conservation, and the battle to coexist: ANIMOSITY is the story of our generation, our legacy.
Numerous animal welfare NGOs have lent their backing to the book including Born Free Foundation, Four Paws, World Animal Protection, International Animal Rescue, PETA & Scubazoo, while world famous actresses Shannon Elizabeth and Amy Jackson have written moving testimonies for the book.
The foreword has been written by one of the best-known environmental activists in the world, Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd conservation society and a co-founder of Greenpeace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: G2 Entertainment
• Release date: Nov 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781782813255

Aaron Gekoski

Brighton-based Aaron Gekoski has spent the past decade documenting our complex relationship with the natural world.He has won numerous awards for his photography including categories at the coveted Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nature Photographer of the Year competitions. The front cover image was Highly Commended at the LUMIX People’s Choice, Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, 2019. His images have appeared in hundreds of publications including National Geographic, BBC Discover Wildlife, GEO, Men’s Health, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Africa Geographic, Asia Geographic, The Independent, Geographical, FHM and many more.

Book preview

Sir David Attenborough: did you mislead me?

Those stories you told; of smoky jungles filled with exotic animals, of untouched coral reefs overflowing with life, of African plains dominated by millions of migrating animals and awaiting predators. These weren’t fictitious lands. This was real: this was planet Earth. Or so I thought.

In 2009, seduced by these visions, I bought a cheap camera and left behind corporate life in London and headed to Africa on a one-way ticket. My goal was to document the beauty of the natural world and share it with as many people as possible.

It turned out that things weren’t always as they seemed on those BBC documentaries. Everywhere I turned, wildlife was under pressure. Animals were losing their homes to deforestation, targeted for body parts or to create bogus medicines, hunted unsustainably, or kept in cages for our personal amusement or financial gain.

Documenting these stories became my focus. I would spend the next decade travelling to some of the most remote places on the planet, often working undercover, writing about, filming, and photographing human-animal conflict.

I lived with shark fishermen in Mozambique, trained as a wildlife ranger in Zimbabwe and Borneo, and went on a military-style mission to expose Namibia’s annual seal cull. There was a trip to track the ‘tortoise mafia’ through Madagascar’s sacred forests, and another to document the dog-drowning dungeons in Cambodia.

I’ve spent recent years working to expose cruelty in the exotic pet trade and Wildlife Tourism industry, and been subjected to scenes that no one should witness; images that are burned into my brain. In the process of working on these projects, I’ve seen the worst of humanity, and also the best.

The stories contained within ANIMOSITY provide a snapshot of human-animal conflict in today’s ever-changing world; complex, multifaceted issues that often lead to more questions than answers.

Would you fin a shark to support your family? Is killing and eating dogs any worse than chickens? Why does one animal make a suitable pet and not another? Can we condemn ancient traditions and practices that involve the sacrifice of critically endangered animals?

It is the role of photojournalists to document and then to broadcast the truth, without judgment. Well, mostly without judgment. I look at the photograph as a modern day fossil: a permanent reminder of a planet in flux, and a record of what may soon be lost forever.

Animals have always been viewed as commodities to eat, exploit or enjoy. It’s going to take a monumental effort to change perceptions and reverse the statistics. But we cannot continue on the path that we’re on, because sometimes - as we are witnessing in the face of a global pandemic - the animals bite back.

So sit back, enjoy, shed a tear, and be repulsed or inspired by some of the stories contained within AMIMOSITY. And to Sir David – who has shifted focus from celebrant of the natural world to its fierce defender – you’re my hero.

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Aaron ‘Bertie’ Gekoski,

Environmental Photojournalist

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Carers provide milk to juvenile orangutans at Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.

This book is dedicated to all those rangers, scientists, educators, NGO workers and media professionals who dedicate their lives to helping wildlife.

And to my family: Mum, Dad, Belinda, Anna, Steve, and my partner, Marie.

Thanks for your unwavering love and support.

And I’m sorry for all the worry!

Mozambique’s 3000km coastline is under siege from a deadly predator: people.

As I vomited over my chest, camera and the giant shark that lay dying on top of me, I cast my mind back to a previous life. Just six months before, I’d been the owner of a model agency in London. I had an attractive, comfortable flat in East London, drove an (admittedly beaten up) Saab convertible, and attended swanky model parties.

Yet here I was lying in a tiny fishing vessel, covered in dead eels (bait), as litres of shark blood swished over my face and body. The shark was hacked at with a machete and took its last breaths, leaving me to ponder the sanity of past decisions.

But as its cavernous eyes twitched - as if it wished it possessed the capacity to scream - I remembered why I was here: soon, there may not be any of these magnificent creatures left in our oceans.

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A fisherman admires his catch: a large bull shark. At this shark finning camp they used to catch around 10 sharks a day. When we visited they hadn’t caught one in six months.

A global perspective

Globally, shark populations are being decimated for the oil in their livers, their cartilage, teeth, skin and flesh. But due to the demand from a soup-hungry Southeast Asia, it’s their fins that have become the prized possession.

One kilogram of dried shark fins now fetches as much as $1000 on the Hong Kong market, leading to an industry worth between half a billion and a billion dollars per year. The trade - aided by an increase in the numbers of sophisticated fishing vessels - has led to an estimated three sharks per second being slaughtered, worldwide. Many of these are finned alive, then dumped back into the sea. There, still breathing, they are either eaten by predators or suffocate to death.

In order to meet demand, Africa’s once shark-infested waters have been hammered by Chinese fishing vessels, with corrupt government officials paid off in return for their country’s fishing rights. Other nations sell theirs for schools, roads and hospitals. As a result, a third of shark species are now threatened with extinction.

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Due to the value of shark fins, the community can earn the equivalent of one month’s wages for a single large shark.

Thrown in at the deep end

I was in Mozambique, having sold my model agency in London to pursue a childhood dream of becoming a marine David Attenborough - a dream that hadn’t involved wallowing in vomit whilst cradling a dying shark.

I’d washed up in Tofo, Mozambique’s little slice of heaven; its sea a delicious soup of plodding whale sharks, UFO-like manta rays and sing-songy humpback whales. And I was in luck: a local film crew were about to start work on a documentary about Mozambique’s shark finning crisis, Shiver (the collective noun for a group of sharks).

During filming, we spent time at rural shark camps that were cropping up all over Mozambique’s coastline. The fishermen explained that they never used to target sharks, however with their traditional catch plummeting due to illegal industrial fishing far out at sea, they were now paid handsomely to provide