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A man named Tomas Anez Dos Santos worked in a tiny glade deep in the Peruvian rainforest when he heard footsteps drawing near through the thick jungle.

He became aware he was surrounded, and froze.

“One was standing, directing using an projectile,” he remembers. “And somehow he noticed that I was present and I started to flee.”

He found himself encountering members of the Mashco Piro. Over many years, Tomas—who lives in the tiny community of Nueva Oceania—had been almost a local to these wandering individuals, who avoid engagement with strangers.

A recent study issued by a rights organisation states exist at least 196 of what it calls “isolated tribes” remaining in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the biggest. The study says half of these tribes may be eliminated within ten years unless authorities don't do more measures to safeguard them.

It claims the greatest dangers come from deforestation, digging or drilling for oil. Isolated tribes are exceptionally vulnerable to common illness—therefore, the study says a threat is posed by exposure with proselytizers and social media influencers looking for attention.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been coming to Nueva Oceania increasingly, according to residents.

The village is a angling community of seven or eight clans, perched high on the edges of the Tauhamanu River in the center of the of Peru Amazon, a ten-hour journey from the closest town by boat.

The area is not recognised as a preserved area for uncontacted groups, and logging companies work here.

Tomas says that, sometimes, the sound of logging machinery can be heard day and night, and the tribe members are seeing their jungle disrupted and devastated.

In Nueva Oceania, inhabitants say they are torn. They dread the Mashco Piro's arrows but they also possess deep regard for their “brothers” who live in the forest and desire to defend them.

“Let them live according to their traditions, we must not alter their way of life. For this reason we keep our space,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are anxious about the damage to the Mascho Piro's livelihood, the threat of aggression and the chance that loggers might expose the tribe to diseases they have no resistance to.

During a visit in the settlement, the Mashco Piro made their presence felt again. Letitia, a woman with a two-year-old daughter, was in the jungle picking produce when she noticed them.

“There were calls, cries from individuals, a large number of them. Like there were a whole group shouting,” she told us.

This marked the first instance she had come across the Mashco Piro and she fled. An hour later, her mind was continually pounding from terror.

“As there are timber workers and operations clearing the woodland they're running away, maybe out of fear and they arrive close to us,” she explained. “We are uncertain how they will behave towards us. This is what frightens me.”

In 2022, two individuals were attacked by the group while angling. A single person was hit by an arrow to the abdomen. He survived, but the other man was located lifeless subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his physique.

The Peruvian government has a strategy of avoiding interaction with isolated people, establishing it as prohibited to start contact with them.

The policy began in Brazil following many years of lobbying by tribal advocacy organizations, who observed that first contact with isolated people lead to entire communities being decimated by illness, hardship and hunger.

Back in the eighties, when the Nahau people in Peru first encountered with the broader society, a significant portion of their population died within a few years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua community suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are extremely susceptible—epidemiologically, any exposure might introduce diseases, and even the basic infections might wipe them out,” states an advocate from a tribal support group. “From a societal perspective, any interaction or disruption may be very harmful to their existence and well-being as a society.”

For local residents of {