
There are no fast food restaurants or grocery stores in the rainforests of eastern Ecuador, so if the Huaorani people want to eat they go out with a blowpipe and shoot a monkey.

They are experts at shinning up trees and lying in wait for the primates, which they kill with poisoned darts fired from blowpipes.

There are less than 4,000 people in the Huaorani tribe and the small gene pool, along with the constant tree-climbing has led to them developing very flat feet, many of which have six toes. Some also have six fingers.

Monkey meat is a staple of their diet, which also includes peccary pigs and toucans aswell as plants and herbs foraged in the forest by the women.

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A Huaorani hunter shins up a tree and shoots a blowpipe dart at a monkey

A good day's work: To Western eyes it might seem cruel but for the Huaorani hunting monkeys (left) is really no different to British people hunting pheasants or rabbits. Their diet consists of monkeys, toucans and peccaries (right), a type of wild pig which are widespread in Latin America

The Huaorani live not far from the Rio Napo, which eventually flows into the mighty Amazon in neighbouring Peru.

British photographer Pete Oxford, who took these images, said: 'The Huaorani Indians are a forest people highly in tune with their environment.

'Today they face radical change to their culture to the proximity of oil exploration within their territory and the Yasuni National Park and Biosphere Reserve, they are vastly changed.

Bringing home the bacon: A hunter is welcomed by the women and children of the village as brings back a peccary pig, which will be roasted over an open fire

'They still largely hunt with blow pipes and spears eating a lot of monkeys and peccaries.'

The Huaorani, who are sometimes referred to as Waorani or Waos, are a native Amerindian tribe whose language bears no relation to any other tongue, not even Quechua, which is widely spoken in Ecuador.

Mr Oxford said: 'In my lifetime, the world has witnessed a massive shrinking in world cultures and indigenous knowledge. We are all homogenising to the same thing. To me that is distressing.

'One of my greatest joys is spending time with people unlike myself. I am very conscious that when I visit a "foreign" tribe it is I, not them who are foreign.'

Everyone knows each other: There are only 4,000 people in the tribe which inevitably leads to some inbreeding. The tribe is also divided into traditional gender roles with the men (left) doing the hunting and the women (right) raising the children

Ecuador is home to 300 species of monkey, none of which are endangered. The monkeys eat the forest's vegetation

Call the chiropodist: The Huaorani spend so much time climbing up trees their feet have evolved and most have very flat feet. Because of the small gene pool many also have six toes on each feet

The Huaorani also hunt and eat toucans (pictured, left) but this parrot has become a pet, rather than dinner (right)

Pete Oxford (pictured) said: 'I was accepted and everything that was theirs was mine to share. Unfortunately, I could not reciprocate and stayed in a small tent on which I had to put a small padlock. For a Huaorani, my computer cables were excellent tethers to tie up a dead peccary but for me represented being able to work or not'

Children watch from a hammock as a Huaorani woman cooks a peccary. Peccaries are found throughout Latin America

A man constructs a necklace out of bird's feathers. The tribe make some money by selling handicrafts to tourists

Like many South American tribes the Huaorani are in the habit of stretching their earlobes and then wearing ear-rings made of bone or wood. The fashion is popular with men and women