The social tuco-tuco (''Ctenomys sociabilis'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

in the family

Ctenomyidae A tuco-tuco is a neotropical rodent in the family Ctenomyidae.Parada, A., G. D’Elia, C.J. Bidau, and E.P. Lessa. 2011. Species Groups and the Evolutionary Diversification of Tuco-Tucos, genus ''Ctenomys'' (Rodentia: Ctenomyidae). ''Journal of M ...

.Woods, C. A. and C. W. Kilpatrick. (2005). "Infraorder Hystricognathi", pp. 1538–1600 in: Wilson, D. E. and D. M. Reeder
''Mammal Species of the World''
(3rd ed.) Johns Hopkins University Press. . It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry lowland

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

Range

The social tuco-tuco is found in the mesic meadows at about 1000 m in elevation. Its range is rather small at about 700 km², bound by the

Rio Limay The Limay River is an important river in the northwestern Argentine Patagonia (the region of Comahue). It originates at the eastern end of the Nahuel Huapi Lake and flows in a meandering path for about , collecting the waters of several tributar ...

to the east, the Rio Traful to the north, and the

Lago Nahuel Huapi Nahuel Huapi Lake ( es, Lago Nahuel Huapí) is a lake in the lake region of northern Patagonia between the provinces of Río Negro and Neuquén, in Argentina. The tourist center of Bariloche is on the southern shore of the lake. The June 20 ...

to the south.

Behavior

One of the unique characteristics of this species is its social behavior. This is evidenced by observed adult burrow sharing, female tendency to stay near her birthplace, and

alloparental care Alloparenting (also referred to as alloparental care) is a term used to classify any form of parental care provided by an individual towards young that aren't its own direct offspring. These are often referred to as "non-descendant" young, even th ...

. With this high degree of sociability, however, there seems to be much less genetic diversity.

References

Tuco-tucos Mammals of Argentina Mammals of Patagonia Endemic fauna of Argentina Mammals described in 1985 Taxa named by Oliver Payne Pearson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{rodent-stub