Porangatu

History

The first settlement began in the eighteenth century with the discovery of gold in the region. Attacks from the local Indians, the Canoeiros, kept the settlement, called Descoberto, from developing. Until 1933 it was a district belonging to Pilar de Goiás, when it became part of the municipality of Santana, later changed to Uruaçu. In 1943 Descoberto was changed to Porangatu, from Tupi-Guarani, meaning "poran", beautiful, and "gatu", landscape. In 1948 it was dismembered from Uruaçu. With the building of the Belém to Brasília highway (BR-153) in 1958 Porangatu grew quickly to become the most important commercial center of this new region that was opening up to migrants from the south.

Geography

Parangatu is in its own microregion, Porangatu Microregion, of 226,766 inhabitants in an area of 35.287 km2; 426 km from the state capital, Goiânia. This microregion serves as a nucleus for eighteen municipalities in the north of Goiás state. The municipal seat is just west of the important interstate highway BR-153, which connects Belém with Brasília and just south of the state line with the state of Tocantins. Important rivers are the Santa Tereza, Cana Brava, Ouro Pintado, Santa Maria and Gregório. The climate is hot, moist tropical, with frequent occurrences of a maximum of 40 °C. The average minimum is 21C, the maximum is 40 °C and the minimum is 21 °C. The elevation is 390 meters above sea level and the highest points are Serra da Sabina and Serra dos Picos.

Most-observed species

• Rio Tropical Racer

  Palusophis bifossatus (Raddi, 1820) · Squamata
  3
• cribo

  Drymarchon corais (Boie, 1827) · Squamata
  2
• Tropical Rat Snake

  Spilotes pullatus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Squamata
  2
• Dwarf Treefrog

  Dendropsophus nanus (Boulenger, 1889) · Amphibia
  1
• cat

  Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  1
• South American River Turtle

  Podocnemis expansa (Schweigger, 1812) · Testudines
  1
• Paraguay Green Racer

  Philodryas nattereri (Steindachner, 1870) · Squamata
  1
• Boa Constrictor

  Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758 · Squamata
  1

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2010-10-08
  42 km SW of Porangatu, Brazil
• M 5 — 2010-10-08
  50 km S of Porangatu, Brazil