Image of a Waorani hunter using a blowgun the Amazon Rainforest.  Blowguns are an important and fundament part of traditional Waorani life and culture.  The Waorani Indians of Ecuador still commonly use the blow gun to in order hunt.  Waorani blowgun hunters use darts tipped with curare poison in order to hunt monkeys and large birds and can target prey up to 40 meters distant in the tree canopy.  Waorani blowgun hunters wrap kapok cotton around the leading end of the dart in order to provide compression when blowing and to stabilize the darts in flight by acting as ballast.  Waorani men, rather then women, are in charge of making blowguns and spears.  Waorani blowgun construction consists of carving channels in two strips of  Peach Palm wood which are held together with a cylindrical mouth piece to form a hollow tube.  The entire Waorani blowgun is wrapped with a vine.  The blowguns of Waorani Indians are always used in combination with a "quiver" for carrying the darts that consists of  "guadua" wood shaped into a hollow cylindrical tube.