It seemed too good to be true. Visitors to Morocco have long flocked to the roads outside Marrakech to take photographs of goats who climbed into the low boughs of the Argania tree.

Such pictures are widely shared on social media and often decorate the pages of guide books to Morocco.

But an investigation by Aaron Gekoski, a British environmentalist photographer, has uncovered that the tourist destination seems to be an exploitative scam.

Local farmers appear to be bringing the goats in from other areas and forcing them into the trees before charging tourists to take photographs of them.

When the goats eventually tire from balancing on the tree branches they are brought down and new goats are swapped in.