Manú National Park is a Biological Wonder

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This Park in Peru IsNature ‘in Its FullGlory’—With HuntersManú National Park is a biological wonder, protected—for now—by isolation

and the indigenous people deep in its rain forest.

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No more than a thousand Matsigenka people live in the national park along the Manú

River and its tributaries. They farm and hunt in the forest but only for their own

subsistence. Spider monkeys are a favorite quarry—and also favorite pets.


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By Emma Marris

Photographs by Charlie Hamilton James

This story appears in the June 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Elias Machipango Shuverireni picks up his long, palm-wood bow and his

arrows tipped with sharpened bamboo. Were going monkey hunting in

Perus Man! "ational Park#a huge swath o$ protected rain $orest and one

o$ the most biodiverse parks in the world.

%he hunt is legal. Elias belongs to an indigenous group called theMatsigenka, o$ whom $ewer than a thousand live in the park, mostly along

the banks o$ the Man! &iver and its tributaries. 'll the parks indigenous

inhabitants#so-called uncontacted tribes as well as the Matsigenka#have

the right to harvest plants and animals $or their own use, but they cant sell

park resources without special permission, and they cant hunt with guns.

Elias and his wi$e#people in Man! go by $irst names#grow yucca, cotton,

and other crops in a small clearing on the (omibato &iver. %heir children

gather $ruit and medicinal plants. Elias catches $ish and $ells trees. 'nd hehunts, especially spider monkeys and woolly monkeys#$avorite $oods o$ the

Matsigenka. Both are threatened species.

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%hings have been this way $or a long time, but the Matsigenka are growing

in number, which worries some biologists who love the park. What i$ their

population doubles) What i$ they start using guns) *ould the monkey

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150813-uncontacted-amazon-tribes-peru-brazil/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/05/yellowstone-national-parks-part-1http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/nature-urban-national-parkshttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/03/seychelles-islands-nature-reserve-national-parkshttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150813-uncontacted-amazon-tribes-peru-brazil/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/05/yellowstone-national-parks-part-1http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/04/nature-urban-national-parkshttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/03/seychelles-islands-nature-reserve-national-parks


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populations survive) 'nd without those species, which disperse the seeds o$

$ruit trees as they snack through the +ungle, how would the $orest change)

's the $orest outside the park becomes increasingly $ragmented by natural

gas etraction, mining, and logging, protection o$ the park becomes morecrucial. So does this uestion 're the people who live inside it good $or it

or bad) 'nd is the park good $or them)

Two women from the “uncontacted” Mashco-Piro tribe watch the photographer’s boat

pass on the Alto Madre de Dios River. A century after their settled forebears likely fled

into the forest to avoid enslavement by rubber barons, a small group has begun

appearing on the riverbank.

It’s easy to imagine e’re at!hing "eo"le untainte# $y!i%ili&ation' li%ing in "rime%al

$liss( I ha%e to remin# mysel) thatthey’re more like re)ugees )romgeno!i#e(

Elias, /0, has curly black hair and an intense ga1e. 2es wearing a green

soccer +ersey, shorts, and sandals made $rom old tires. 2is home is a

clearing with several open, palm-thatched buildings. 's we cross his $ields

and plunge into the +ungle on a muggy day last "ovember, were

accompanied by his son-in-law Martin, his daughter %halia, and a teenage

granddaughter. 3ike Elias, Martin is armed with a bow and arrows. %halia wears a handwoven sling to carry back plants. 4ve got 5lenn Shepard, an

anthropologist who has spent 06 years working and living among the

Matsigenka and is one o$ the $ew outsiders $ully $luent in their language.


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7ive minutes into the +ungle we hear the calls o$ dusky titi monkeys. %he

hunters dont break stride8 titi monkeys are target practice $or teenagers.

'nother $ive minutes and we hear a troop o$ capuchin monkeys. Elias

pauses, even raises his bow, but lets them go. 2es holding out $or

something more poshini #that is, delicious. We begin a tour o$ $ruit treesand soon $ind several with recently dropped $ruit. Monkeys have been here,

but theyre gone. 'nother hour goes by. 't last %halias $ace lights

up. Osheto, she says in a whisper#spider monkeys.

"ow we see them, leaping at high speed through the crowded treetops, 96

to :66 $eet above our heads. %he hunt is on#and 4, $or one, am stumbling

over roots, crashing through vines, slipping in mud, and running into

thorns and spiderwebs while watching $or snakes. Elias and his $amily are

more grace$ul, but this +ungle is di$$icult even $or them. 2unting animals on

the ground#$at peccaries, say#is tough enough. %o bag a spider monkey, a

Matsigenka hunter $irst has to catch up with it, then shoot more than si

stories straight up at an erratically moving target.

2e has several natural medicines to improve his chances. ' day or so be$ore

a hunt hell o$ten drink ayahuasca, a potent, psychoactive mi that makes

him vomit. 4ts supposed to purge him o$ harm$ul spiritual in$luences and

put him in contact with the spirits that control his uarry. %o sharpen his

aim, he may suee1e a plants +uice into his eyes. ;uring the hunt itsel$, he

may chew some sedges, or piri-piri, that harbor a psychoactive, mind-

$ocusing $ungus. Shepard, who has tried them, calls them +ungle &italin.

But none o$ these per$ormance enhancers guarantee success. We $ollow

%halias signals as the dark, long-limbed shapes $lit away $ar above us. Elias

bounds ahead, catches up with a $emale, takes aim, and looses an arrow. 2e

misses. %he monkeys bolt. %heres no chance $or a second shot. 4$ hed had

a shotgun, the monkey would have been dead.


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Clay cliffs just outside Manú National Park form a natural salt lick that attracts various

animals, including these red-and-green macaws. More than a thousand species of

birds—10 percent of the world total—live in and around the park.

No guns' no roa#s' no $uying or selling %here may be people inMan!, but it $eels $ar, $ar away. %he most popular route to the park involves

a :6-hour ride down the 'ndes on a hair-raising road, $ollowed by $ive

hours in a motori1ed canoe on the 'lto Madre de ;ios &iver to its

con$luence with the Man! &iver. %he main park entrance is near there, but

to visit Eliass village and others#which reuires permission $rom the

Peruvian government#Shepard and 4 had to motor $or several more days

up the Man! and its tributaries. %he remoteness has protected the park

$rom loggers and miners, and also $rom tourists. ' $ew thousand at most visit each year.


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Man! is one o$ the $ew places in the tropics where there is an opportunity

to eperience and study biodiversity in its $ull glory,C says Fent &ed$ord, an

ecologist at 'rchipelago *onsulting in Portland, Maine. 4t is an

etraordinary $lowering, relatively little impacted by the human hand.C

Smaller Beasts of the Peruvian Wild5 / 6

“Biodiversity in its full glory”—that’s how U.S. ecologist Kent Redford describes the

enormous variety of animals and plants that thrive in and around Peru’s Manú National

Park. Among them: a thousand species of trees, 92 species of bats, 14 species of

primates, and innumerable species of insects. This new species of poison dart frog

pictured here belongs to the genus Ameerega.

Psalidognathus superbusis a species of long-horned beetle.

Bothrops bilineatus smaragdinusis also known as the two-striped forest pit viper.

This katydid of unidentified species recently molted its old skin.

This giant metallic wood-boring beetle belongs to theBuprestidae family.

This member of the genusPhoneutriais called a wandering spider or banana spider.

*i!h as it is, Man! isnt an untouched Eden. %heres plenty o$ history

here. Many tribes speaking multiple languages lived along the Man! &ivers banks, so highly populated that one tribe called it the &iver o$ 2ouses. 4nca

and then Spanish conuistadores, $acing the impenetrable $orest and

skilled warriors, $ailed to sub+ugate the settled tribes. But trading with the

4nca connected them to the wider region. 'nd Spanish diseases, which

killed untold numbers, began connecting the region to the wider world.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140124-manu-national-park-peru-amphibians-reptiles-pictures/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140124-manu-national-park-peru-amphibians-reptiles-pictures/


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4n the :G6s this world was again turned upside down. &ubber $or tires was

selling at get-rich-uick prices. &ubber barons hired 'ma1onian natives to

tap trees and also to raid other tribes $or slave labor. >ne ambitious baron,

*arlos 7ermHn 7it1carrald, got more than a thousand people, mostly

members o$ the Piro tribe#relatives o$ the Mashco-Piro who lived along theMan!#to carry a riverboat piece by piece over the isthmus separating that

river $rom the upper Mishahua. 2is arrival opened up the Man! Basin to

rubber tapping.

With Piro as his troops, 7it1carrald tried to enslave the tribes along the

Man!. 2undreds died resisting him8 the river is said to have $lowed red.

'nother tribe, the %oyeri, was almost wiped out. Some Mashco-Piro died,

and others are thought to have $led into the $orest. 4ts their descendants

whove made news lately by coming out o$ the $orest and seeking contact.

The Alto Madre de Dios flows along the southern boundary of Manú Park. To enter the

park, visitors typically take a motorized canoe downstream for five hours—longer if the

water is low—then continue upstream on the Manú River.

4n short, the political geography o$ Man! is neither primeval nor isolated. 4thas been bu$$eted $or more than a century by the $orces o$ a globali1ed

economy, in which technological innovation and consumer demand in one

part o$ the world shape#and o$ten damage#the lives o$ those who live near

valuable natural resources.

'$ter the rubber boom collapsed, most o$ the Piro#who are now o$ten

called (ine, a$ter their language#moved down the Man! &iver, eventually

establishing villages such as Boca Man! and ;iamante on the 'lto Madrede ;ios &iver. 4nto the void stepped the Matsigenka. %hey moved in $rom

the west and south, $irst to the remote headwaters, then eventually to the

vacated Man! river$ront, a$ter missionary schools were established there in

the :96s.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/rubber-boom-texthttp://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/rubber-boom-text


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4n communities such as %ayakome and (omibato the Matsigenka now have

not only schools but also medical clinics and communal satellite phones.

%he charity &ain$orest 7low recently installed sanitation and water-

treatment systems that deliver clean water to nearly every household.

People in these sprawling settlements#$rom one house you generally cantsee the net#hunt, gather, and grow their own $ood. But they also play

Peruvian pop on boom boes and wear knocko$$ *rocs and %-shirts that say

things like Palm Beach,C along with their traditional clothes. %he

Matsigenka who live near the headwaters still wear hand-spun cloth and

get by without money or metal tools. >ver time theyve been trickling into

the river$ront villages, looking $or aes and medical care.

A pet saddleback tamarin hangs on tight to Yoina Mameria Nontsotega as the

Matsigenka girl takes a dip in the Yomibato River, deep inside Manú National Park.

(Learn more about the girl in this photo.)

%he Mashco-Piro are more isolated still . Since the rubber days theyve kept

to themselves, hunting and gathering deep in the $orest. But theyve likely

been well aware o$ the outside world, and in the past $ive years members o$

one group have begun appearing on the beaches o$ the 'lto Madre de ;ios, +ust outside the park, beckoning to boats and gesturing $or $ood. %hey may

have been driven out by the intrusions o$ mining, natural gas, and logging

industries or by a recent decline o$ the peccaries, which are a ma+or $ood

source.

%ourists and local people have given things to them, sometimes with tragic

results. 4n ?6:: some Mashco-Piro killed "icolas ShacoC 7lores, a

Matsigenka man whod given them tools and $ood $or years. 4n ?6:/ theykilled a young man in the village o$ Shipetiari.

&omel Ponciano is one o$ several (ine $rom villages like ;iamante who

work $or the Peruvian *ulture Ministry trying to build $riendly relations

with their isolated kin. 2e and the others sta$$ a post on the 'lto Madre de

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/06/editors-note-manu-protecting-parks-peruhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151013-uncontacted-tribes-mashco-nomole-peru-amazon/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/06/editors-note-manu-protecting-parks-peruhttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151013-uncontacted-tribes-mashco-nomole-peru-amazon/


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;ios, across $rom a riverbank where a group o$ Mashco-Piro has o$ten

appeared.

%he river$ront post is named "omole, brothersC in (ine. Still, &omels

initial contacts with the isolated group were stress$ul. %hey asked him toshoot an arrow and take o$$ his clothes. %hey stared into his eyes and

mouth, smelled his armpit, $elt his testicles#all to $ind out whether he

really was a brother. &omel has since warmed to them#they nicknamed

him (otlu, meaning little river otterC#but he never turns his back on

them. Maybe in $ive or :6 years they will walk around like us,C he says.

%hey will still have their arrows $or hunting, but not $or killing. %hey kill

because they are a$raid.C

A camera trap caught this ocelot on a nighttime prowl. Ocelots weigh up to 33 pounds;

their diet includes rodents, lizards, sloths—and also his chickens, says hunter and

farmer Elias Machipango Shuverireni. Still, he admires the cats’ beauty.

Man+ is one o) the )e "la!es inthe tro"i!s here there is an

o""ortunity to e,"erien!e an#stu#y $io#i%ersity in its )ull glory(Kent Redford| Ecologist

;octors whove eamined the Mashco-Piro say that so $ar their isolation

has kept them healthier than local settled indigenous people, who struggle

with respiratory in$ections and dental bacteria transmitted by outsiders

that can leave them coughing and toothless. But the Mashco-Piros isolationalso means they have little or no immunity, so viral diseases like measles

and yellow $ever could easily kill them.

's we round a river bend on the way to "omole, 4 catch a glimpse o$

moving $igures on the $ar shore. Were too $ar away to make out $aces, but


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we can see their naked, sienna brown bodies against the beach o$ gray river

rocks. %hey have a $ire going, and white smoke billows upward. 7or our

sa$ety and theirs, to protect them $rom disease, we dont seek to make

contact.


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'ma1on &iverdrainage basin

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Loggers remove softwood timber just south of Manú Park. Valuable hardwoods such

as mahogany have already been logged illegally along nearby roads and rivers. But

the park itself has largely been protected by guards, and its inaccessibility.

People in ;iamante, Morales eplains, grow a lot o$ bananas and take them

by boat to sell in nearby Boca Man!. But they know they could get a better

price in *usco, and in general they $eel ripped o$$. >ur kids who go out and

work lumber get nothing,C Morales says. We have good $latlands here, with

loamy, dark earth. We can grow plantains, papayas, pineapples, yucca to

sell in *usco. Soon people here will have their own cars. People have

warned us that bad people will come in and take our land, but we have G66people here. We can de$end ourselves.C

Perus Environment Ministry, which runs the park, opposes the road, and

so do most o$ the indigenous residents o$ the region, according to park

director Dohn 7lore1. %he people demanding it are the colonists,C he says.

;iamante is the only native community asking $or it.C

Mauro Metaki, a genial, mission-educated schoolteacher in %ayakome, isopposed to the road and $rustrated that a $ew people in his community are

in $avor o$ it. %he regional governor is lying,C he says. %hey are $ools to

believe him. 2es making them all ecited saying that the road will bene$it

them. 4t will bene$it him and his white $riends, who will come in and take

the lumber, the animals, and the gold. %here will be nothing le$t $or the

Matsigenka.C

Sitting on the open $irst $loor o$ his house, looking out over wild palms andcultivated bananas, mangoes, and sugarcane, listening to the soul$ul hoots

o$ howler monkeys $rom across the river, Metaki eplains how he sees

Man!. %heres a park, but there are also people living here#right in the

middle o$ it,C he says. Sure, we hunt and $ish, but we take +ust a little to

$eed our $amilies. We know how to take care o$ the $orest.C


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Elena Chogotaro Oyeyoyeyo (foreground, with her baby) is among the Matsigenka

from isolated areas who come to the settled village of Yomibato to get goods and

services. Silverio Mambiro Shinti (standing) came to fish and to get an ax. Then hestayed and built a house.

John Ter$orgh' the -uke e!ologist, has $or many years epressed the

hope that the Matsigenka would leave the park#voluntarily, he emphasi1es

#$or the wildli$es sake and $or their own economic opportunity. ;o 4

think there ought to be permanent settlements inside national parks)C he

asks. "o. 4n this respect the


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strategy#the Matsigenka see themselves as part o$ the natural order. %hey

hunt monkeys, and so do +aguars. Fey plants and animals have spirits and

agency, +ust as people do, and theres no hard boundary between them. 4n

(omibato 4 was told matter-o$-$actly about a nice old man who turned into

a +aguar and started killing chickens and dogs. 7inally the +aguar was shotthrough the heart with an arrow and burned so that his spirit wouldnt

come back again.

Matsigenka schoolchildren on a field trip eat fish caught by a traditional method:

Barbasco roots are pounded into a paste and swirled in the river. The roots release

rotenone, a toxin that stuns fish but not the people who eat them.

%he Matsigenka and other indigenous people in the park are not only

hunters8 theyre de $acto armed guards. 4$ all the people who live inside

Man! were to leave in search o$ education and paid work, Shepard argues,

other people would come in#and theyd probably be less willing to abide by

the rules against guns and commercial etraction o$ resources. %here are

no demographic voids in the 'ma1on,C he says.

%oday the Matsigenka act as an advance warning system. With their homesstrung along the parks main rivers, they would notice i$ loggers or miners

or coca $armers moved into its core, and with their deadly arrows, they#

along with the Mashco-Piro#might be an immediate deterrent. 4n Bra1il

the Fayapo have been evicting illegal loggers and miners.

'nd as long as the Matsigenka dont use guns, Shepard says, their hunting

isnt doing much harm. 2e and his colleagues asked do1ens o$ hunters to

record their hunting the animals they killed, the ones that got away, andhow long they traveled to $ind them. %hey $ound that the Matsigenka hunt

$ive species enough to reduce their populations#spider and woolly

monkeys, white-lipped peccaries, and two birds, the ra1or-billed curassow

and Spis guan.


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But they also $ound that even i$ the Matsigenka population were to grow

rapidly over the net /6 years, no more than :6 percent o$ the park would

be depleted o$ spider monkeys#unless the hunters acuired shotguns. With

guns they could uickly empty the $orest o$ monkeys within a day or twos

walk o$ their villages. 4$ the Matsigenka have so $ar abided by the parks$irearms ban, it may be because they understand that guns might be at best

a short-term boon.

For the Matsigenka who live in the village of Yomibato, the river of the same name is a

vital source of food and transportation. It’s also where students from the village school

have their daily swimming lessons and frolic during recess.

Fi%e hours into our hunt Elias and his $amily are still scanning the

treetops, looking $or monkeys. %raveling along a ridge, we come across a

mysterious, $oul ob+ect#a wad o$ green leaves drenched in a dark liuid

and covered with $lies. Martin, Eliass son-in-law, eplains that +aguars eat

leaves and vomit them up, purging +ust as we do, to be better hunters.C

"earby Elias points out a wet stain o$ +aguar urine. %hat piss is $rom now,C

he says.

Suddenly the +ungle eplodes with deep, urgent cries. 'n unseen troop o$

woolly monkeys, only a $ew yards down the ridge, is sounding a +aguar

alarm. %he cat is close. 4 $ree1e and $eel a wash o$ adrenaline. Elias calmly

sits down on a log and reaches into his net bag. 2e pulls out some roots o$

piri-piri and chews them.

Properly medicated, he plunges into the thick vegetation. 2e plans to take a woolly monkey and a +aguar too, i$ he can. Daguars dont +ust compete with

the Matsigenka $or monkeys8 they also kill children.

%he rest o$ us wait, then creep down the trail. ' moment later the rain

begins. 4t shoots $rom the sky with the $erocity o$ a pressure washer. %he


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noise o$ our movements now completely drowned out by the cacophony o$ a

million glossy leaves being battered by raindrops, we sprint o$$ the eposed

ridge and take shelter under the trees. 4n a $ew minutes Elias appears,

smiling, empty-handed, skunked by the storm.

Back at home he has no monkey meat to give his wi$e. But a baby spider

monkey is warming itsel$ by the $ire. %he Matsigenka love to tame $orest

animals as pets. When they do manage to kill a spider monkey, it o$ten

turns out to be a $emale slowed down by young o$$spring, and they bring

the orphans home. >nce the monkeys grow up, theyre released back into

the $orest. %his baby monkey is drenched to the skin, like the rest o$ us. We

+oin it by the $ire. %he smoke rises above the papayas and $loats across the

(omibato, out over the $orest.

Left:Unlike most of Manú, the village of Yomibato has a school, a clinic, and satellite-

phone access. This Matsigenka woman and her children recently arrived there from

the remote headwaters region, which lacks such amenities.Right:Alain Nonchopopo

Chogotaro Asuso makes his own bows and arrows. For now, he and other Matsigenka

hunters are honoring the park’s ban on guns.

In a spectacular yearlong event, the National Geographic Channel

series 'mericas "ational Parks will show you the parks’ natural wonders

—both big and small—as you have never eperienced them be!ore" #earn

more about the series "

C.**ECTI.N/ $ previous version o! this story said %lias &achipango

'huverireni (pulls out a !ew leaves o! piri-piri and chews them"( In this

instance he chewed the roots, not leaves"

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/americas-national-parks/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/americas-national-parks/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/americas-national-parks/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/americas-national-parks/


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Manú National Park is a Biological Wonder

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