Qualla: Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve

Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve: Introduction

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mateus Kryszczun Dalla Rosa, Public domain. According to the ranchers who ruled this part of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Buraco das Araras had its uses. Cattle thieves, political enemies, anyone a local power broker wanted to disappear -- the hole swallowed them all, or so the legend goes. Stolen cars went in too, along with general rubbish, and for years the sinkhole's walls served as target practice for anyone with a gun and a low opinion of macaws. Then, in 2007, someone decided the hole deserved better. The privately owned reserve that resulted has turned one of Brazil's most abused natural features into one of its most carefully protected.

Image: Mateus Kryszczun Dalla Rosa | Public domain

Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve: Five Hundred Meters Around, One Hundred Down

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The sinkhole sits in the municipality of Jardim in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, within the Cerrado biome -- the vast tropical savanna that covers much of central Brazil. It measures 500 meters in circumference and plunges 100 meters deep, a scale that makes the human figure o...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve: From Dump Site to Sanctuary

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Daniel Francisco Madrigal Möller, CC BY-SA 3.0. The transformation required more than just fencing off the area. For decades, the sinkhole had absorbed abuse: gunfire pockmarked its walls, garbage accumulated at the bottom, and the macaw population suffered from constant harassment. The reserve was formally established on Apri...

Image: Daniel Francisco Madrigal Möller | CC BY-SA 3.0

Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve: The Residents of the Hole

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonas Techy Potrich, CC BY-SA 3.0. The macaws that give the sinkhole its name are the most visible inhabitants, their red, blue, and green plumage flashing against the pale rock walls as they wheel in thermals rising from the pit. But the ledges and lagoon below host a full community. Caimans patrol the green wate...

Image: Jonas Techy Potrich | CC BY-SA 3.0

Buraco das Araras Private Natural Heritage Reserve: The Cerrado's Hidden Depth

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mauricio ximenez, CC BY-SA 3.0. Brazil's Cerrado is often overshadowed by the Amazon in the global imagination, but it is one of the world's most biodiverse savanna ecosystems and one of its most threatened. The Buraco das Araras reserve preserves a sliver of this biome in a form that compresses its richness in...

Image: Mauricio ximenez | CC BY-SA 3.0