Sole survivor of uncontacted Amazonian tribe caught on camera in Brazilian rainforest

The lone survivor of an uncontacted indigenous Amazonian group in the Brazilian rainforest has been captured on camera.

The partially-naked man was filmed as he chopped down a tree. He appeared to be wearing a loincloth and has very long hair tied back.

Brazil government workers believe he has been living alone for around 22 years, following an attack on his community by people seeking to develop the lands on which he lives.

“In the 1980s, disorderly colonisation, the establishment of farms and illegal logging in [the Rondonia region] led to repeated attacks on the isolated indigenous peoples who had lived there until then, in a constant process of expulsion from their lands and death," Funai, the country’s National Indian Foundation, said in a news post.

“After the last farmer attack in late 1995, the group that was probably already small – from reports, the local staff believed [it] to be six people – became one person. The guilty were never punished.”

In June 1996, workers uncovered the group’s former living quarters and confirmed the presence of the man in the region, later setting up an exclusion zone around him. He now resides in the Tanaru indigenous reserve.

They attempted to make contact but the man made clear he wanted nothing to do with outsiders.

He is reportedly in good health, capable of hunting and farming food.

He has earned the nickname "the man in the hole", because of the deep holes he is known to dig. It is thought he burrows down to hide in or to trap prey.

Altair Algayer, a local coordinator for Funai, said: “This man, unknown to us, even losing everything, like his people and a series of cultural practices, has proved that, even then, alone in the middle of the bush, it is possible to survive and resist allying with society.”

Over the last 10 years some 57 monitoring tips have been made, Funai said and no incursions by loggers or others have taken place in the last five years.