AMAZON REGION, ECUADOR - FEBRUARY 24: A baby monkey is seen inside a cage while its mother was being hunted by members of the Bameno community, a 145-person subfamily of the Waorani tribe that has lived in harmony with nature for centuries, deep in the Amazon rainforest, under the shadow of giant trees and among the meanders of wide rivers, feeds the baby of the monkey they hunted to show respect to the animal they hunted in Amazon Region, Ecuador on February 24, 2025. The lands where the Bameno community lives are known for their natural riches and are an important part of the ecosystem that is under great threat. Amidst the temptations of modern life and the freedom of the wild, the Waorani people are a people strongly attached to their history and land, and despite all the hardships, they continue their traditions. Living largely isolated from the modern world, where even GPS signals cannot be received at times, the sub-communities of the Waorani tribe not only live in harmony with nature, but also struggle to preserve their local culture, beliefs and identity. While many of the Waorani people, whose lives were radically changed when missionaries first made contact with the region, have settled down, some communities, such as the Bameno, one of the Waorani people with whom missionaries last made contact in the 1970s, continue to maintain their traditional life in the forest. Members of the Bameno community, who traditionally live as hunters and gatherers and believe that surviving in the forest requires not only knowledge but also respect, hunt using traditional methods such as spears and poisoned arrow pipes. Small ceremonies held before and after the hunt symbolize the return to nature of a part of what was taken from nature. The animals are hunted with arrows that have been previously prepared and coated with a mixture of poisonous plants. This poison has the ability to instantly paralyze the animals. Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu/ABACAPRESS.COM