Drone Captures Footage of an Amazon Tribe Never Seen by the Outside World

It’s estimated that there are still hundreds of uncontacted tribes remaining in the world, and footage of one of them was captured last year by a drone in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, CBS reports.

The clip—filmed in 2017 but uploaded to YouTube this week by a Brazilian government agency called the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)—is only 51 seconds long. In the distance, a person can be seen walking through a forest clearing in the Javari River valley, situated in northwest Brazil near the border with Peru. The agency also released photos of an ax, thatched hut, and canoes found in the area.

According to a statement from FUNAI (translated into English by Google), drone surveillance and ground inspections were undertaken to better protect indigenous groups. FUNAI found two groups of outsiders hunting illegally in the area. In addition, they discovered that a landowner and farmers had been encroaching on land reserved for indigenous peoples. These types of activities can lead to deforestation and violence against indigenous communities, according to The New York Times.

“Vigilance and surveillance should be intensified in the region to curb the actions of violators and ensure the full possession of the territory by the indigenous people,” Vitor Góis of FUNAI said in a translated statement.

The Javari Valley is home to seven contacted peoples and seven uncontacted indigenous groups, according to Survival International. Last month, the agency also released footage of a man who is believed to be the last member of a tribe in the Brazilian state of Rondônia along the Bolivian border. Officials say he has lived alone in the jungle for 22 years, ever since his village “fell victim to landowners and loggers,” CBS reports.