The tribe member, believed to be in his 50s, has been dubbed “the loneliest man in the world”.
He is believed to be the sole survivor of a group of six people who were killed during an attack by farmers in 1995.
Neither his name, nor the name of his tribe, are known.
Locals call him “the man of the hole” as he sets traps for his prey using hidden holes full of sharpened wood or hides in holes himself.
The man lives in a hut made from trees. He hunts forest pigs, birds and monkeys with a bow and arrow and grows his own fruit and vegetables.
He was captured on camera for the first time felling trees with an axe by the Brazilian government agency Funai, which monitors the country’s indigenous populations.
Funai has a policy of not intervening with traditional tribal communities and has protected their territory since the 1990s after loggers, farmers and land grabbers attacked several indigenous groups.
Funai’s Altair Algayer said they had previously attempted to help the man by leaving axes, machetes and seeds for him to pick up, but he clearly wanted nothing to do with modern society.
“It is his sign of resistance and a little repudiation, hate, knowing the story he went through,” Mr Algayer explained.
“He is very well, hunting, maintaining some plantations of papaya, corn. He has good health and a good physical shape doing all those exercises.”
He added: “This man, unknown to us, even losing everything, like his people and a series of cultural practices, has proved that, even then, alone in the middle of the bush, it is possible to survive and resist allying with society.”
Until now the only publicised glimpse of the man was in a Brazilian documentary in 1998.