Brazilian Hominoids Discovered

Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 30th, 2008

Before you jump to any conclusions, remember “hominoids” includes humans, hominids, anthropoids, and pongids.

What has been discovered, actually?

What would happen if an undiscovered group of so-called “Brazilian Indians” was found, and among them were seen “near-humans”? Would anyone take the possibilities seriously?

In a time when Google Earth is spotting hidden huts in the jungles, will satellite photos reveal more than living areas and humans? Will sky-based photography point out more of a diversity of hominoids or merely confuse the picture?

See today’s breaking images from Brazil:

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Fox News is reporting on Friday, May 30, 2008, those photos and the following, regarding the source of the images:

One of Brazil’s last uncontacted Indian tribes has been spotted in the far western Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border, the National Indian Foundation said Thursday.

The Indians were sighted in an Ethno-Environmental Protected Area along the Envira River in flights over remote Acre state, said the Brazilian government foundation, known as Funai.

Funai said it photographed “strong and healthy” warriors, six huts and a large planted area. But it was not known to which tribe they belonged, the group said.

“Four distinct isolated peoples exist in this region, whom we have accompanied for 20 years,” Funai expert Jose Carlos Meirelles Junior said in a statement.

The tribe sighted recently is one of the last not to be contacted by officials. Funai does not make contact with such Indian tribes and prevents invasions of their land to ensure their autonomy, the foundation said.

Survival International said the Indians are in danger from illegal logging in Peru, which is driving tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated 500 uncontacted Indians now living on the Brazilian side.

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, most of them in Brazil and Peru, the group said in a statement.

“These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist,” Survival director Stephen Corry said.

“The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct.”

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Cryptomundo correspondent “dvdw” writes: “One of the creatures shown does not look human.”

Frankly, I think we have to tread carefully here, as diversity of skin color, body paint, and hair ornaments can be viewed strangely from hundreds of feet above.

Humans do have an amazing ability to make themselves look differently to each other, and especially to members of the opposite gender.

What do you think?

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.


36 Responses to “Brazilian Hominoids Discovered”

  1. Endroren responds:

    I was JUST about to email this to you! My reason, however, was that I wondered if bigfoot/yeren/etc. sightings could stem from isolated tribes of humans with unusual methods of decorating themselves. While it seems incredible that a group of humans could remain so isolated (particularly in the Pacific Northwest of the US for instance) wouldn’t this be a simpler solution than an entirely different animal species? Especially with concrete examples that show how a decorated human can look completely in-human under the right circumstances.

  2. shumway10973 responds:

    I say the whole thing is a fake. Not only do we have the black colored “thing” holding a child, but then we have the one completely covered in red, but the one that caught my eye was the one standing between the black colored one and the hut. He is awfully Caucasian looking for a native of Brazil. I have seen plenty of pictures and documentaries of the natives from that area, and they are brown (a little reddish to the brown). Not to mention these people are looking too much like they are acting like what natives never before contacted would do. This would also mean that an airplane would have never flown over them as well, and in this day and age–I have a hard time believing that. I just realized that there may be too many huts. Most of the natives live in 1 hut and set it up almost like apartments on the insides (just missing the walls). They are family. There would be no need for more than one hut. I may be wrong on that one, but I remember a National Geographics talking about that issue.

  3. Endroren responds:

    You’re referring to the Tasaday Hoax.

    Yes, it could be a hoax. At the same time, none of the evidence you’ve cited disproves this. You can’t see how many people are in the huts, gathering or hunting in the countryside, etc.. If color is your judgement, I see red, orange, and black. Why not white mud as well?

    I’m not saying I disagree…a hoax is possible, definitely. At the same time, the evidence provided can’t disprove anything due to omission or blurry images of what the people look like.

    As for planes? All depends on the flight paths. If this point doesn’t lie between two places people need to go, the paths might never cross the point. Or at least no one ever flew this low. Imagine if you spotted something odd WAY up high in the sky…then one day it swoops down right over your house.

  4. wtb1 responds:

    Hoax? Please…

    I believe Survival International over playboy Manuel Elizalde (who started the Tasaday hoax).

    This is a little too well documented to be a hoax.

  5. Sparky1959 responds:

    I viewed these pictures on another site. There is a closer picture of the being in question. He/she is no doubt human. While the other individuals are painted with a red clay this individual is painted black. In the close up there is a clear demarcation where the paint stops at the wrists and ankles.

    I would be thrilled if some unknown creature were photographed, but clear close pictures usually show “known” animals. Cryptids are always photographed in blurry or distant pictures, or with the subject partially hidden.

  6. Sparky1959 responds:

    I do agree with Endroren (first post) this would be a reasonable explanation of many sightings of unknown humanoids. Native dress and customs could disguise a human enough to shock the senses of an unsuspecting witness. That would explain the lack of physical evidence also. All hair, waste, and bones would be human.

  7. DWA responds:

    Endroren says:

    “…I wondered if bigfoot/yeren/etc. sightings could stem from isolated tribes of humans with unusual methods of decorating themselves. While it seems incredible that a group of humans could remain so isolated (particularly in the Pacific Northwest of the US for instance) wouldn’t this be a simpler solution than an entirely different animal species?”

    Simple, as in simplistic, yeah. But not correct. Not for the sasquatch, at least.

    This is why I say RSR! Reports clearly describe an animal that very clearly is not human, at least not a member of our species, and is very consistently described in encounters that span the continent. There have been so many long, detailed encounters that science actually has a good head start on the biology of the species.

    Which, if it exists, isn’t us.

    For other hairy hominoids, I’d have to see the data. But the sasquatch isn’t, for sure, a human being mistaken for something else.

  8. fmurphy1970 responds:

    The BBC website has another helpful photograph of the figure in black, where it can clearly be seen that this is a woman covered in dye, who is described in the following way,

    “The black figure may be a woman, although it is impossible to be certain. That this person is not carrying a bow hints in this direction. The black body paint is called genipapo, and is made from fruit. Like the red dye it is likely to be an aggressive display. ”

    See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7427417.stm#top

  9. DARHOP responds:

    Looks to me like them huts have been there for a while, the way the paths look and what not. If this is a hoax, it’s a pretty damn good one.
    Shumway, your eyes must be better than mine because I don’t see the ( black colored “thing” ) I myself would call it a person, holding a child in any of them photo’s.

  10. Rustaveli responds:

    OK, folks, here are some explanations.

    These Indians are locally called the “Invisible Indians” because of their ability to just disappear into the forest and sort of “blend in”.

    Their huts were located by some anthropologist from the “Amazon Institute” (or similar) using Google Earth. The person in question sent their exact locations to FUNAI.

    Some Indians are painted red. That is very common among Amazon Indian tribes, and they use a local fruit seed called “urucum”. Other are painted black, an effect they get by using the “jenipapo” fruit. Others are simply not painted.

    Indian huts can be closed, like many in the Araguaia Region of Central Brazil (Caraya, Xavante), or open – without walls – like the ones we see here. You can’t notice they’re open on the sides because the pictures were made from above.

    The people at FUNAI are very serious workers and dedicated to the Indian cause, and Meirelles is a very respectable person. I don’t believe that they would perpetrate such a hoax. FUNAI are fighting against all odds to protect those tribes.

    As a Brazilian who has lived and worked in the Amazon region for quite some time, I know that there are tribes that were never contacted.

    SHUMWAY: you have quite a sharp eye to notice a Caucasian (!) there. That is simply too farfetched…

    As for their behavior, they actually attacked the plane with arrows…

    Just my two cents.

  11. Rogutaan responds:

    Were these pictures taken by a helicopter/airplane, or was it taken from the Google Earth satellite, as mentioned in the opening?

    If its taken from Google Earth, its a fake. Why would they all be looking towards the sky at nothing?

    If it was taken by an aircraft then it could be credible.

  12. btgoss responds:

    Not sure on this one.
    When I first saw these images my thought was “Farewell to the King.” (I know, other side of the world… but you get the point.)
    This just looks too perfect.
    Reality is rarely this perfect.
    Just my two cents.

  13. red_pill_junkie responds:

    Quick! Let’s drop to them a case of Diet Coke, a dozen Quarter Pounders, and a DVD collection of ‘Desperate Housewives’. These guys have A LOT of catching up to do 😉

  14. Endroren responds:

    “and is very consistently described in encounters that span the continent.”

    Interesting, because I can think of one particular hominid found in all parts of the world already that wouldn’t require a new species.

    “Simple, as in simplistic, yeah. But not correct. Not for the sasquatch, at least.”

    Look, I believe that something is out there, but the reason this pic ended up here is the same reason I got ready to email it to Loren…I took one look and thought “Hey! That’s a bigfoot in that village!”

    Eyewitness accounts are subject to error. Again, I’m not disbeliving that something like sasquatch could or does exist…I’m just saying…when people like ourselves who constantly analyze this sort of thing see a pic like this and have the same knee jerk reaction, the possibility of at least some, if not all, cryptid hominid sightings by less serious investigators being the result of misidentifcation of a human subject seems very compelling to me.

  15. Ayala responds:

    Thank you Loren for pointing out the difference between hominid/humanoid/hominoid. 🙂 I am excited about these untouched tribes. I hope we can find a way to leave them be. I often wonder if we have feral humans running around North America and if those could account for some sightings of Bigfoot. I also wonder if the Bigfoot DNA is so close to ours that remains could have been misidentified. I was reading a story earlier on the ‘net about a skull fragment found in the 80s that has yet to be identified. The skull is kept as part of a missing persons case. But what if we are misidentifying remains and some of our missing persons aren’t “persons” at all (I use that term tongue-in-cheek)? 🙂

    Either way, this is fascinating news and I hope we have not damaged their culture too much by the photos being taken (they were taken from a plane flying over). I wonder what they think the plane is. I hope it doesn’t influence their culture too much.

    Thanks for a great story and, as always, for everything you do! 🙂

  16. DWA responds:

    Endroren:

    “I’m just saying…when people like ourselves who constantly analyze this sort of thing see a pic like this and have the same knee jerk reaction, the possibility of at least some, if not all, cryptid hominid sightings by less serious investigators being the result of misidentifcation of a human subject seems very compelling to me.”

    Not to me. And not to you, if you’d read as many reports as I have. They come down to one of only three possibilities:

    1. Mental impairment significant enough to merit hospitalization, if not immobilization;

    2. Straight up, boldfaced lies; or

    3. What people say they are seeing, which can fairly be summed up: bipedal ape, clearly not human.

    If you think there’s something out there, well, that’s what sasquatch sightings and other evidence suggest.

    I think everyone in those pix is, very clearly, human. The problem with a lot of those who “constantly analyze this sort of thing” is that they don’t get outside enough.

    if you just ask me.

  17. Rustaveli responds:

    To all those that think this might be a hoax – or too perfect, if you will:

    Please read my previous post here.

    Rogutaan: The huts were located some weeks ago, and their location was sent to FUNAI. The pics were taken from a Cessna aircraft.

  18. Richard888 responds:

    It would be funny if one of their wooden missiles actually brought down the plane/helicopter.

  19. PhotoExpert responds:

    It is probably hard for some to imagine that these are not staged photographs because of all the fraudulent activity that takes place on the internet.

    Others might find it difficult to fathom that the possibility of unknown tribes even exist in today’s world.

    I understand this type of thinking. I get it and why it occurs. However, if you ever had the opportunity to visit these areas, your mind would be quickly changed into a believer.

    You can fly for hundreds of miles through the Amazon Jungle without seeing a single road. You can fly through without even seeing a house. It is hard to fathom this concept if you live in the US. The Amazon Jungle, including Peru and Brazil are probably one of the remotest regions on earth and probably have the most biodiversity of any known lands. If you ever lived there or visited that area for any period of time, it would become a readily accepted concept for you.

    When staying in either the Peruvian Amazon or the Brazilian Amazon, we encountered similar tribes although the ones we encountered probably had previous contact with man. This was evidenced in Peru when the tribe that was encountered was friendly and wanted to trade with us. Blowguns for our fish hooks. Apparently, metal is a foreign concept for many of these tribes. And fish hooks are apparently a great tool for catching turtles. While in the Brazilian Amazon, our camp was raided one night. What was stolen were empty beverage cans. How odd! Well, no big deal. But the next day when encountering some people of some tribe, we found the reason for the raid. The pull tabs off the cans now adorned the neclaces of what I think were crocodile teeth and pull tabs. Again, the fascination of metal by these tribal people.

    There still exists today in the Brazilian Amazon, tribes of headhunters. And although the official government stance on the issue is that headhunting is outlawed, I wonder if the tribes of headhunters got this notification. And seriously speaking, when a document is marked with an X instead of a signature, I wonder if the tribal chief understood the papers he signed.

    This scenario effected me first hand a couple of years ago when one of my fishing trips to the Amazon Jungle was cancelled. The week before my planned trip, one of the tribes had taken my friend and some of his traveling partners hostage. It made the papers in Brazil. And the government sent in translators to negotiate their release. I missed that situation by a week. It turns out, the Chief had changed the terms of the original agreement. What is more likely is that the Chief did not understand the original terms of the agreement and would not let the people fish that land.

    So I do understand some of the comments being made as to the photographs and their authenticity. But if you have ever been there, the believability factor would rise by a factor of 10 for you.

    With that being said, the photographs look very believable to me and not hoaxed at first glance.

  20. cmgrace responds:

    Why even bother them by flying over and taking pics? It obviously did bother them they were willing to shoot at it. The group who took the pics claim they want to be able to “ensure their autonomy”, then why not just leave well enough alone? I agree with Ayala but am afraid their culture may have already been affected.

  21. dvdw responds:

    The figure in black has a nonsymetrical face compared to the others, wider lower jaw and somewhat flatter. The arms appear to have a fuzziness not clear on the other painted figures. The BBC photos are a bit different, could there have been some retouching done on that set, or either set in order to obfuscate?

    Someone with high quality image processing SW should get into these, and offer some photo interpretation, its not black and white at all, at least as these photos go.

    homogeneous isolated populations are more likely to manifest a sameness in appearance within a range of potential. The black could be a shaman, and thus adorned differently. Or it could be an adapted species adopted by this group. or it could be a painted woman as some suggest…….

    Not afraid to be wrong is part of the challenge in debugging crypto…….events.

  22. Dragonheart responds:

    “but am afraid their culture may have already been affected.”

    It definitely is. Imagine what stories they might tell their grandchildren in a few decades: Stories about great silver birds who descended from heaven, and all the other stuff. It’s a pity, it would have been better not to photograph them. This unknown tribe has to be protected!

    Those pictures are somewhat scary, this is how we would look like if the “gods” returned. Erich von Däniken anyone? 😉

  23. AlbertaSasquatch responds:

    Why would anyone think this is a hoax. We have known that there are undiscovered tribes in south america forever. Thats not what bothered me about these pics, its the “black” person that bothered me. When I saw this I thought OMG there is a south american sasquatch with this tribe. But thanks to everybody’s posts I now know its just paint. Very interesting pictures though. I know if I had never seen a small airplane close up ever I would be thinking OMG there is a giant silver thunderbird. That cessna just made its way into these indians cryptozoology talks lol. I’m not saying just my two cents anymore either, too many people are saying it. I need a new end phrase now. How about “AlbertaSasquatch has spoken” lol.

  24. Andrew Minnesota responds:

    I think there have been a lot of great posts that have provided a lot more information on this. I honestly never gave much thought whether there were still tribes of people of which we were unaware so I found this very interesting. My first thoughts when reading this was if we are still discovering unknown tribes of people in remote areas it just goes to show that it would be very easy for Sasquatch or similar creatures to elude us. Then after reading some of the comments about claim of seeing an undiscovered people in North America who perhaps adorn there bodies in a way that makes them look odd to us that would be quite a find as well! I still personally think that the Sasquatch isn’t human but this gives me a lot to think about! great post and great comments.

  25. Spinach Village responds:

    Referring to Endroren’s theory:

    IMO… There is absolutely too much analysis of Bigfoot Evidence for me to shrink back to that conclusion.

    Evidence that includes Hair, Dermal Markings (that are unique to Sasquatches), DNA, Vocal calls, bones… Not to mention analysis of the Patterson footage which shows the knees of the animal work in a way that is very unnatural for humans..

    There is much scientific evidence which points to at least one unknown primate species including the categories that I just mentioned.

  26. Booda responds:

    If they have not seen aircraft anyone from the tribe that returned after these pictures were taken would be told of a strange metal bird. In this case we are the cryptid. A cryptid that brings death. There is a quite recent story of researchers meeting and interacting happily with a tribe in the amazon for a short time. But when they re-visited them the tribesmen murdered the researchers (they were a French team I think.) and the belief is that some of the tribes people had fallen sick and died in the time between the two meetings. The infections may have been due to the tribe having no immunity to our germs. The tribe therefore decided the research team a kind of evil. Further reason to remain in hiding and to fear being discovered. I’m wondering what the tribe are thinking now, what they are discussing and doing now? I dare say they have moved on and are probably terrified of these evil ‘cryptid’.

  27. jules responds:

    If someone came to a headhunter and said “sign this please”, saying that it can’t be done anymore, there would be a new trophy head about the village.

  28. dvdw responds:

    I copied this description with respect to understanding that if this isn’t a hoax, than what we have here is a group of people who have not separated from the bi/tri cameral mind, and therefore their actions will be extrapolated according to different logics. This tribe is near Peru, and may be root cousins of the aymara culture, though they may not even have knowledge of that. a homogeneous population that coexists in the present with animism, dream time, lives a life completely separate from our own.

    Before the breakdown of the bicameral mind, before the rise of ego-sphere-based conscious awareness, however, human apperception was rooted in feeling, dream-time, animistic identity transparency — and the logics employed to order cognition were not of the binary order of value. That this was so has recently received strong support from the demonstration that Aymara, the ancient language of the Andes, is based upon a 3-valued logic. (See: http://www.aymara.org/ and in particular the chapter entitled: “The Trivalent Logic of Aymara” which you get to by clicking on “bibliography” and then on “Logical and Linguistic Problems…”)

  29. jerrywayne responds:

    The photos are cool. My first thought: the film “Emerald Forest”. In that movie, a family is picnicking near a rain forest when their young son wonders only a few feet away, into the woods. He is “kidnapped” by a tribe of “invisibles” and is raised as one of them. The boy’s father spends a decade in an on and off search for his son. The film offers a very sympathetic portrayal of the Native Americans depicted.

    In our not too distant past, our Western minds would look at these peoples and think “primitive” and “barbaric” and otherwise inferior to us. That view is hard to maintain today, when on virtually any street corner in the good old USA we find the heavily tattooed and body pierced folk in ball caps and tattered jeans. Who is the more primitive looking?

    As to Endroren’s comments: I personally believe bigfoot is a mixture of contemporary myth and hoax. Yet, I’m not dogmatic about it and do not assume it is the only “correct” way of looking at the issue. So I welcome varying points of view, including Endroren’s notion linking bigfoot and native peoples in a hypothetical. We should be open to various ideas.

    However, what does bother me, for one, is the attitude that bigfoot is virtually established (as a reality, and an ape at that), which is simply not true.

  30. Point Radix responds:

    There seems to be conflicting information as to whether this is a “recently contacted” or still an “uncontacted” tribe. The whole concept of “contacted” and “uncontacted” is biased to the point of being meaningless, in any case. Contact with whom (and from whose perspective)? Are we to believe that the design of their structures as well as, the bows and arrows, was completely independent of other humans? Then it is highly unlikely that they would be identical to the design used by tribes everywhere.

    As long as those labelled as “uncontacted” have any form of contact with other tribes, they would be very much aware of the “modern” society. It is extremely difficult to believe that they were totally unaware prior to the fly-over photography session. The very reaction of defensiveness or defiance shown in some of the aerial photos almost proves that they are VERY aware of us (and what the implications of our “civilization” are for their traditions, lifestyles and forest resources).

  31. DWA responds:

    jerrywayne sez:

    “However, what does bother me, for one, is the attitude that bigfoot is virtually established (as a reality, and an ape at that), which is simply not true.”

    No, it’s not true. What is true is that there is far more evidence for the sasquatch than there is for almost any other species that has ever existed prior to its formal confirmation by science.

    To say otherwise is – I have to keep saying this – to openly profess utter ignorance of the evidence.

    There sure is more evidence for the sas than there was for these members of our own species, wot? The analogy is precise and correct.

  32. Goldseeker responds:

    The picture is very interesting. It makes me wonder if Col. Fawcett was right. In his book that is son put together after his death. “Lost Trails Lost Cities”. He talks about hearing stories from other tribes that there was a very fierce tribe of humanoids that he described as being Trog like. He said that they were black, hairy and strong. Perhaps this one of there females. It would be in the right area. Since Fawcett is the one who helped figure out the bounderies of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. Or it could be a female indian painted black or a hoax, but the face of the black female is plainly differant then the indian men. Their faces are longer with narrow jaws nad the black woman’s jaw appears to be very square. If it’s real she’s probable from a differant tribe.

  33. dotadot responds:

    The first thing I thought about when I saw these pictures was the chapter on the Maricoxi in Ivan T. Sanderson’s “THINGS”. Anyone else?

  34. voodoochild responds:

    i really can’t discern much, as far as the facial features of the “black figure”.
    however, i’m wondering if it has occurred to anyone who questions any anomalous features that might be present on this figure, that this is a human wearing some sort of ceremonial or shamanistic mask?
    this would completely explain any distortion or anomalous features of this particular figure’s face.
    native americans in north america adorned (and perhaps, still adorn) a myriad of different masks (depending on the tribe and/or purpose.) some of them quite dramatic and grotesque, with exaggerated and distorted features.

  35. Point Radix responds:

    It would have been a nice story, but…

    THE NOT-SO-LOST TRIBE

    by Mike Krumboltz – June 23, 2008

    A few months ago, mainstream news outlets reported that a photographer had found a lost tribe of warriors near the Brazilian-Peruvian border. Photos of the tribe backed up his claim. As it turns out, the story is only half true. The men in the photo are members of a tribe, but it certainly ain’t “lost.” In fact, as the photographer, José Carlos Meirelles, recently explained, authorities have known about this particular tribe since 1910.

    The photographer and the agency that released the pictures wanted to make it seem like they were members of a lost tribe in order to call attention to the dangers the logging industry may have on the group. The photographer recently came clean, and news outlets, perhaps embarrassed at having been taken for a ride, have been slow to pick up the story. Now, the word is starting to spread and articles in the Buzz are picking up steam. Expect a lot more brutal truth in the coming days.

  36. Point Radix responds:

    Now “Survival International” (the global movement for tribal peoples) has something further to add to the claims & counter-claims that have emerged with this story.

    Hopefully, this is the last update.

Sorry. Comments have been closed.

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