A native lived 26 years alone in the Amazon rainforest (6 photos + 1 video)
Category: Interesting photo stories, PEGI 0+
2 May 2025
An unnamed Indian from the Amazon rainforest known as the Man from the Hole has lived alone for nearly three decades. His tribe was exterminated by Brazilian farmers in the early 1990s. The hermit avoided all contact with the outside world, although authorities kept an eye on him and left him supplies. 
The native was nicknamed "The Man from the Hole" for his habit of digging deep holes - this is how he hunted animals and hid from bad weather.
The Indian man came to the world's attention in 1996, when Brazilian authorities began to notice signs of his solitary existence in the indigenous territory of Tanaro in the state of Rondonia.
For years, he was occasionally spotted before disappearing into the jungle again. Footage taken in 2018 shows a half-naked man with a homemade axe chopping down a tree. He looks into the camera lens and quickly disappears.
This was the last video of him alive. It showed his blurred silhouette, like a shadow from the past. A man who became a ghost in his native land.
He dug deep holes in the ground, resembling graves. Some were for hunting, others had spiritual or ritual significance.
The man often hunted forest pigs, birds, and monkeys with a bow and arrow. He lived in a hut among papaya and corn plantations.
His tribe, which once numbered six people, was wiped out by illegal loggers and farmers in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Brazilian Amazon became the scene of a fierce struggle for land.
His people were hunted down like animals and exterminated to make way for farmland. He was the only one to escape.
The Funai National Indian Trust tried to protect the lone native. In 1998, 8,000 hectares of forest were set aside as a protected area, and patrols were deployed to keep outsiders — especially hostile ranchers — away. The hermit was given traditional weapons, such as axes and machetes, as well as seeds, but he ignored the gifts. He even shot a Funai official in the lung with an arrow. After the incident, officials decided not to bother the hunter.
In 2022, he was found peacefully sleeping in a hammock. The police found no signs of violence or struggle, and his death was due to natural causes. A small feather ornament was lying next to the man, as if he were preparing to leave.
Altair Algaier, coordinator of Funai, noted: “This man, having lost everything - his people, his culture - proved that even alone, in the forest, you can survive without contact with society.”
The indigenous rights group Survival International called the Indian a "victim of a forgotten genocide." His life was "a symbol of both horrific violence and remarkable resilience."
