Buraco das Araras
Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural Buraco das Araras
Interesting facts
- The sinkhole formed when layers of sandstone collapsed into a void left by limestone dissolving deep below the surface.
- Before it was protected, the hole was used as a dump: rubbish and even stolen cars were thrown in, and its walls and macaws served as shooting targets.
- According to local legend, the pit was once used to get rid of cattle thieves and others whom ranchers or politicians wanted out of the way.
- The rancher who bought the land in 1986 to raise cattle reportedly did not know the sinkhole was there and was teased for owning a hole.
- From 1996 the owners hauled rubbish out of the sinkhole and replanted it with native forest, and a year later the first pair of macaws was released nearby.
- The macaws that gave the hole its name are red-and-green macaws, which nest in crevices high on the sheer sandstone walls.
- How the yellow-throated caimans living in the lake at the bottom survive in such an enclosed pit remains something of a puzzle.
- The reserve is classed in IUCN category IV, a protected area managed for the conservation of particular habitats and species.
Why it is worth it
Buraco das Araras is a vast, almost perfectly round sinkhole in the cerrado of Mato Grosso do Sul, in Brazil's Centre-West: a hole roughly 500 metres across and 127 metres deep, its sandstone walls falling vertically to a green lake and a floor of forest. It is described as the largest sinkhole in Latin America. The name means "hole of the macaws", and red macaws nest in the crevices of the cliffs, wheeling and calling in pairs above the void.
The sinkhole was known to the indigenous peoples of the region and was rediscovered by outsiders in 1912, when a local worker came upon it. In 1986 the land was bought by the farmer Modesto Sampaio, who in 1996 opened the site to nature tourism. In 2007 it was declared a Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) covering about 29 hectares. The macaw population has grown since the reserve's creation, and by 2016 around seventy birds were counted.
Beyond the macaws, the reserve shelters a wide range of cerrado wildlife, with more than 160 bird species recorded, including toucans and ibises, as well as coatis, anteaters, armadillos and yellow-throated caimans in the lake below. Visitors follow a trail through the woodland to viewing platforms on the rim, from which the full depth of the hole and the lake at its bottom come into view.
Getting there
Buraco das Araras is in the municipality of Jardim, about 28 km from the town, off the BR-267 highway; Bonito is about 54 km away by road. The nearest airport in a straight line is Ponta Porã Airport (PMG), about 138 km away; Bonito Airport (BYO), some 13 km from Bonito, has scheduled flights from São Paulo and Campinas.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve is a privately operated conservation area in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. It takes its name from the Buraco das Araras, a large sinkhole that is the main feature of the reserve.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
-21.49180, -56.40350per Wikidata