Ayoreo woman. Her uncontacted relatives are under threat from logging.
Ayoreo woman Survival International

Ayoreo Totobiegosode ("people from the place of the wild pigs") an Indian tribe residing in the Chacko forests of Paraguay, has recently been discovered and reported by Paraguan authorities, according to Survival, a group working for tribals.

Paraguay's Department of Indian Affairs has confirmed the Ayoreo tribe that has never been contacted before lives in the northern Chaco region of Paraguay.

The discovery was made after footprints and traps for hunting tortoises were found.

Ayoreo are a nomadic community living in small groups of three or four families. Their survival is dependent on hunting wild pigs, large tortoises and extracting honey from bee hives. Their survival is at stake because of large scale deforestation taking place in and around Paraguay, especially in the Chacko forest area. Many have been displaced while many more have been compelled to abandon their natural habitat to work on ranches owned by big businesses from Brazil and Paraguay.

Yaguarete Porá S A, a Brazilian company, owns 74,589 acres of forest land that belongs to the Ayoreo Totobiegosode. The company has been blamed for destroying forests and endangering the survival of tribes in the area.

Two other Brazilian companies River Plate S A and BBC S A have been blamed for destroying the natural habitat of the Ayareo tribe.

In 1979 and 1986 the American fundamentalist New Tribes Mission helped organise manhunts in which large groups of Totobiegosode, the most isolated members of tribe in the Ayoreo, were forcibly brought out of the forest, sparking outrage.