Peru’s reclusive Mashco Piro ethnic group recently used bows and arrows to attack loggers suspected of encroaching on their territory in the Amazon, according to a regional Indigenous organization.
FENAMAD, representing 39 Indigenous communities in the Cusco and Madre de Dios regions, said Monday that it believes illegal logging was taking place on Mashco Piro territory and that one logger was injured in the July 27 attack.
A few weeks ago, photos emerged of the uncontacted tribe searching for food on a beach in the Peruvian Amazon, which some experts say was evidence logging concessions are “dangerously close” to its territory.
“It is presumably illegal because the area where the incident occurred is a forestry concession that belonged to Wood Tropical Forest until November 2022, and we are not aware of a concession that has requested or granted enabling rights in the same area,” said a FENAMAD representative, speaking anonymously out of personal security concerns.
Firstly, it’s hard to buy ammunition in the forest what with a lack of stores.
Secondly, they already have excellent aim with their poison-tipped arrows they’ve been hunting with since they were children, which also have the advantage of being close to silent. So I think maybe stick to those.