Uncontacted Amazon tribe are revealed for the first time in stunning drone footage filmed by researchers – who then LEFT them to their isolation

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Dramatic drone footage showing an previous unknown and uncontacted indigenous tribe living deep in the Brazilian jungle  has been seen for the first time.

The video was shot from above a vast area of dense Amazon rainforest in the far west of northern Brazil.

The images show a group of 16 indigenous people from a tribe which, according to the Brazilian agency for native tribes, Funai, has never had any contact with the outside world.

A worn axe tied with vegetable fibre was found by FUNAI - a Brazilian government agency that protects indigenous culture and interests

The photos, as well as the drone footage, were taken in 2017, and has now been released. This is a picture of a horn made from tree bark used by the uncontacted tribe

The video and photographs were taken during an expedition in 2017, but have only been released now.

Some drone footage shows a tribesman walking with a bow and arrow, an ancestral long house known as a maloca, and a plantation of what is believed to be manioc.

Other members of the tribe can be seen walking through the jungle near the clearing.

The name or ethnicity of the tribe is unknown as the group has never been seen before and no contact has ever been made, according to FUNAI.

The agency said its experts trekked more than 190 miles into the 53,000-square-mile Vale do Javari reservation on the border with Colombia and Peru, after receiving reports that illegal hunters were threatening tribes.

The three-week expedition last year included travelling 112 miles along rivers before taking to motorbikes then walking for 75 miles through dense jungle. 

Hidden: The indigenous tribe was found living in a reserve near the Peruvian border

The sign behind a Funai expedition team reads 'PROTECTED LAND', they found evidence of illegal hunters in the region

FUNAI said that no attempt will be made to contact this or any of Brazil's uncontacted tribes. FUNAI also found dugout canoes probably used by the uncontacted tribe on the 1,050 km Rio Jutai River

The group also found items which confirmed of the presence of uncontacted tribes in the region, including an abandoned stone axe tied together with vegetable fibre, a horn made from tree bark and dugout canoes.

The region, in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, is known to be occupied by six tribes which have been contacted.

But FUNAI believe there at at least 16 other tribes living in the forest who have never had any contact with civilisation.

Bruno Pereira, FUNAI's isolated indigenous peoples coordinator, said it is the first time Indians have been filmed using drones, which went undetected by the tribespeople during five drone flights during the expedition. 

He said: 'The use of drones provided safety both for the indigenous people and for the FUNAI team. 

FUNAI believe there are 113 uncontacted tribes living in the Brazilian Amazon, only 27 of which have been sighted

An ancestral long house known as a 'maloca', and a plantation of what is believed to be manioc, also known as cassava

'The idea is to share these scenes in order to confirm the existence of these Indians and the importance of protecting them. 

'We need to strengthen our work in the region.'

The team also found evidence of illegal hunters in the region believed to be capturing exotic Amazonian species, including traps set up in tributaries of the Juruazinho river.

A number of animals were released from the traps, a spokesman said.

'These images have the power to make society and the government reflect on the importance of protecting these groups,' said Wallace Bastos, FUNAI's president.

Mr Pereira said that no attempt will be made to contact this or any of Brazil's uncontacted tribes.

He said: 'We respect their isolation. Their isolation will remain until the day they decide against it, or until an extreme situation requires the State to make contact.' 

Lone survivor in Amazon, Brazil. The man, who is thought to be now in his 50s, is the last of a tribe whose name is not known

This 2011 video frame released by Brazil's National Indian Foundation and published in late July shows an uncontacted indigenous man amid the forest in Rondonia, Brazil

FUNAI believe there are 113 uncontacted tribes living in the Brazilian Amazon, only 27 of which have been sighted, which could number up to 3,000 people.

There are also said to be 15 uncontacted tribes in neighbouring Peru and others deep in the forests of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador.

Recently, FUNAI helped locate a man dubbed 'the loneliest man on the planet'. He was part of a tribe known as the Flecheiros, or 'People of the Arrow', but the man has lived alone in Amazon for 22 years after his tribe was slaughtered. Stunning pictures showed his face close up while video showed him swinging an axe at a tree.

A team of 30 tribal scouts and backwoodsmen - along with FUNAI - set out to find out about the Flecheiros before making the stunning discovery. 

Pereira told the Associated Press these communities are aware of the cities and farms in their surroundings, but they often choose to isolate themselves due to traumatic experiences with the outside world.

External contact can often be deadly, ending in massacres or epidemics wiping out tribes. Last year, a group of illegal gold miners allegedly killed 10 people in an isolated community.

'If they wanted contact with the outside world, they would seek out ways to communicate with us,' Pereira said. 

The uncontacted indigenous tribes of Brazil's Amazon

Native Brazilian group playing wooden flute at an indigenous tribe in the Amazon in Brazil

Brazil's Amazon is home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere in the world. There are thought to be at least 100 isolated groups in this rainforest, according to the government's Indian affairs department FUNAI.

Their decision not to maintain contact with other tribes and outsiders is almost certainly a result of previous disastrous encounters and the ongoing invasion and destruction of their forest home.

Very little is known about these peoples. What is known is that they wish to remain uncontacted: they have shot arrows at outsiders and airplanes, or they simply avoid contact by hiding deep in the forest.

In Acre there could be as many as 600 indigenous individuals belonging to four different groups. Here they live in relative tranquility in several demarcated territories which are largely untouched.

It is possible that up to 300 uncontacted people live in the Massacó territory in Rondônia.

They use enormous bows and arrows – one bow was found measuring over four metres – very similar in size and design to the Sirionó tribe live in neighbouring Bolivia.

They clearly like to eat tortoises as mounds of shells have been found in abandoned camps.

However, other uncontacted groups are teetering on the edge of extinction with no more than a handful of individuals left.

A recent report says that some of them are abandoning their land due to the noise and pollution from the construction sites.

All are extremely vulnerable to diseases like flu or the common cold transmitted by outsiders and to which they have no resistance: good reasons to avoid contact.

Source: Survival International