Rio Verde de Mato Grosso

History

The Caiapó were the first inhabitants of the lands that now form the municipality of Rio Verde de Mato Grosso. In the 17th century, expeditions of bandeirantes entered through the varadouro (portage route) between the Pardo River and the Camapuã stream, following the Coxim River up to the Taquari River in search of Caiapó villages. With the establishment of Domingos Gomes Belliago in 1729 on the right bank of the Taquari, the region began to be explored more frequently, which drove away its original inhabitants. During the Paraguayan War, the lands of the present municipality served as a passage for the imperial troops in the campaign narrated in the book A Retirada da Laguna by the Viscount of Taunay, which records in its first chapter the death of colonel José Antônio da Fonseca Galvão, then at the head of the contingent, on the banks of the Rio Negro, the current boundary between Rio Verde de Mato Grosso and Aquidauana. The region remained practically unpopulated until 1885, when Américo de Souza Brito settled there, having purchased from the State an extensive strip of land on the right bank of the Rio Verde, intending to devote himself to cattle raising; he ended up selling most of his lands to Antônio Vitorino da Costa, who established the Campo Alegre farm. Over time, new migrants arrived in the region with their families to open rural properties dedicated mainly to cattle raising. In the early 1910s, the discovery of precious stone deposits in the region's rivers attracted garimpeiros, coming mainly from the Northeast. Porfírio Gonçalves, one of the great enthusiasts of the region and the person who most contributed to the progress of the new settlement, a native of Cruz Alta (Rio Grande do Sul), settled in the locality with his wife Ubaldina Barbosa…

Geography

The municipal seat is located at 18°55′04″ south latitude and 54°50′38″ west longitude, covering a surface of about 8,174 km² in the Central-North region of Mato Grosso do Sul. The municipality is divided into five districts: Rio Verde de Mato Grosso (the seat), Capão Alto, Juscelândia, Rio Negrinho and Sete Quedas. The municipality's climate classification, according to Köppen criteria, is Aw — a tropical climate with a dry winter — with a rainy season in summer, from November to April, and a distinct dry season in winter, from May to October, July being the driest month; the average air temperature of the coldest month is above 18 °C. Annual rainfall exceeds 750 mm and can reach 1,800 mm. The municipal territory contains geoenvironmental units of the Region of the Upper Basins of the Taquari and Itiquira rivers, of the Levels and Escarpments of the Western Edge of the Paraná Basin, of the Pantanal Transition Region and of the Pantanal Region itself, the latter consisting of an extensive accumulation surface with quite flat topography, at elevations between 80 and 150 metres, subject to periodic flooding. The geology comprises rocks from the Quaternary (detrital deposits of the Pantanal Formation), the Carboniferous (Aquidauana Formation), the Silurian (Furnas Formation), the Devonian (Ponta Grossa Formation) and the Precambrian (Cuiabá Group), as well as the Coxim Granite, of Cambrian–Ordovician age. The municipality belongs to the Paraguay River hydrographic basin, in the sub-basins of the Rio Negro and the Taquari River. The main watercourses are: * Coxim River: a left-bank tributary of the Taquari River, about 280 km long; it forms the boundary between Rio Verde de Mato Grosso and Coxim; * Rio Negro: a left-bank tributary of the Paraguay River, it rises in the…

Most-observed species

• Blue-and-yellow Macaw

  Ara ararauna (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  27
• Saffron Finch

  Sicalis flaveola (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  25
• Yellow-chevroned Parakeet

  Brotogeris chiriri (Vieillot, 1818) · Aves
  24
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  23
• Rufous Hornero

  Furnarius rufus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  22
• Pale-breasted Thrush

  Turdus leucomelas Vieillot, 1818 · Aves
  22
• Red-legged Seriema

  Cariama cristata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  22
• Buff-necked Ibis

  Theristicus caudatus (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  21