Also tucutuco, tucotuco, tucatuca, tucatucu. [Native name, imitating the grunting sound made by the animal when in its burrow.] A rat-like burrowing rodent of the genus Ctenomys, esp. C. magellanica and C. brasiliensis; found in Patagonia and La Plata. Also, the sound made by this animal. Also attrib.
1833. Darwin, Jrnl. Beagle, iii. (1845), 50–1. The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be gregarious…. They are nocturnal in their habits…. This animal is universally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground…. The name Tucutuco is given in imitation of the sound…. When angry or frightened they uttered the tucutuco.
1839. Fitz-Roy, Voy. Beagle, II. 313. The ‘tucutucu,’ a little animal like a small rabbit.
1880. Lady F. Dixie, Across Patagonia, ix. 112. Putting his foot in an unusually deep tuca-tuca hole, my little horse comes with a crash upon his head.
1899. Daily News, 4 May, 4/3. Patagonia was always noted for its strange ground game, as armadillos and tucotucos.
1904. Times, Lit. Suppl., 11 Nov., 347/2. They rode northwards towards the Andes … knee-deep mud and tucutucu country (earth undermined by prairie rat) were common everywhere.
