Sunday, February 20, 2011

Uncontacted Amazon Tribe: First ever aerial footage



Jose Carlos Meirelles, an employee of the Brazilian government's native affairs agency FUNAI, leads a BBC film crew into a remote part of the Amazon in order to film one of about 70 uncontacted tribes left in the rainforest.

While he has watched these people for 20 years from the air, recent events have forced his hand, and he brought the film crew with him for the purpose of proving the tribe's existence to the government, who according to Meirelles would rather deny the existence of these natives than take steps to curtail the illegal mining and logging operations which threaten their survival.

I think it's quite amazing that there are even 70 uncontacted tribes left, I thought there would be far less. As a wise fictional pirate captain once quipped, "the world didn't get smaller, there's just less in it."

via likecool