Ryan Killackey, who passed away on October 4, 2024 at the age of 46, was a tireless defender of the natural world, a voice for Indigenous peoples, and a documentarian who sought to bring the farthest reaches of our planet into the public eye. But Killackey’s life was no simple journey of exploration or adventure; it was a pursuit defined by hardship, loss, and a fierce dedication to preserving the natural world and its people. Born in Homewood, Illinois, on April 24, 1978, Killackey’s path toward advocacy and activism was not linear. It began in the world of terrestrial wildlife biology, in which he earned his degree at the University of Montana in 2000. His early career saw him wading through cold freshwater lakes to study frogs, tracking and live trapping wolverines in rugged terrains, and working as a ranger in the Alaskan wilderness. But it was the allure of the Amazon that pulled him in an entirely new direction, where his passion for reptiles and amphibians merged with a burgeoning interest in photography and film. Osteocephalus vilmae. Image ©️Ryan P. Killackey. By 2005, Ryan was living and working in the Ecuadorian Amazon, documenting the region’s unparalleled biodiversity and witnessing firsthand the environmental devastation wrought by oil extraction. What started as a job soon became a calling. The people he met, especially the Waorani tribe, known for their indomitable spirit and rich cultural traditions, struck a deep chord with him. The forest that surrounded them, Yasuni National Park, was no…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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