Explorer made shocking discovery after coming face to face with uncontacted tribe in rare footage
Topics: World News, Environment, Community, News
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: The Diary of a CEO/Jungle Express
Topics: World News, Environment, Community, News
An explorer has spoken about the moment he came face-to-face with an uncontacted tribe in the Amazon jungle.
It's estimated that there are around 400 different tribes in the Amazon rainforest, speaking more than 300 different languages.
According to Survival International, it's believed that out of these, there are at least 100 uncontacted tribes in the Amazon.
One of those tribes - the Nomole - was being followed by Paul Rosolie’s conservation group, Junglekeepers, who work to protect the rainforest from loggers, miners, and narcotics dealers in the area.
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Rosolie spent a few years in the Amazon, and ended up encountering the Nomole, which he documented and recently released the footage of a year after the encounter.
Junglekeepers said in a press release: "The encounter was Nomole-initiated. No direct contact was attempted by our team: no physical approach, no vocal attempts. We adhered strictly to Peru's no-contact protocols."
Sitting down to discuss the moment for Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast, Rosolie revealed the discovery he and his team made while they had been distracted interacting with the male members of the tribe.
Rosolie explained: "Notice they are all men. The women were hidden in the forest.
"And while the men were making a distraction in front of us, the women were raiding the farm behind us, the indigenous people's farm, our community's farm.
"We were all huddled up very close. It was an incredible encounter but the prevailing emotion was fear.
"They were scared, we were scared.
"The indigenous people naturally have shotguns anyway. Everyone had their shotguns out.
"They had archers waiting."
When Bartlett asked how Rosolie knew that it was the Nomole women who had been in the farm while the team were away, he explained: "After this was over and we went to the farm, everything had been pulled up, all the yucca, all the plantains, all the sugar cane, the entire farm was ruined.
"The women in the village told me it was the women. Also you see the smaller footprints.
"These men have wide, big... from walking barefoot their whole lives... these guys have almost duck feet. Big fat calloused feet."
You can watch the footage here (it contains nudity).
Rosolie also revealed how the tribe came out to ask one important question, telling host Bartlett: “They said, ‘Please give us food. Please give us rope.’ And they had one other question. They said, ‘How do we tell the bad guys from the good guys?’”
Rosolie went on to say he was confused by this, and responded: “What do you mean? Who are the bad guys?”
To this, the tribe apparently responded: “Some of you shoot at us with the fire sticks."
The explorer noted it was the hostile groups that were boxing in the tribe, causing deforestation and a decline in their numbers.