After a gap of 20 years, an isolated Amazonian tribe has made contact with Brazilian scientists, according to an announcement from the country's Indian affairs department (FUNAI).

Emerging from the dense rainforests along the Upper Envira river, the group contacted the officials, who were in the area following complaints from local villagers about fearful strangers raiding their crops and tools.

The officials suspect the present tribe fled illegal loggers some 186 miles away in Peru. The loggers may have driven away the animals the tribe hunted, forcing them to migrate.


Anthropologists are concerned for the group's welfare as such isolated tribes have been known to succumb to diseases like flu and whooping cough their body is not protected against. Between 1983 and 1985, almost half of another population was wiped out owing to illnesses contracted from loggers.


As oil drilling oil companies push ahead with drilling and laying pipelines inside such reserves, the tribes stand to lose out on their land and resources.

