The Feral Way.

Deep in the Ecuadorian headwaters of the Amazon, the Huaorani—about 1,500 people across roughly two dozen temporary settlements—live within nearly 20,000 square kilometers of uninterrupted rainforest. They revere the jaguar, call themselves Huaorani, meaning “human beings,” and refer to all outsiders as cowode—“non-humans.”

This is Umayue, a legendary hunter. Though the Huaorani do not mark age, he is believed to be around seventy. His senses have been honed by a lifetime lived in perfect rhythm with the forest. Umayue and his family move through the jungle at night without flashlights, barefoot, and dressed intuitively for the heat and humidity—a feral elegance born from generations of deep coexistence with the land.