Environmental and Ecological Features of the Genus Ctenomys

Subterranean rodents are widely recognized as ecological engineers. The habitat requirements and ecological characteristics of animals that live underground influence numerous aspects of their biology, including where they live and how they behave. Regional distributions of Ctenomys species vary substantially with soil and vegetation characteristics and resource availability, and it is apparent that tuco-tucos can also increase local environmental heterogeneity at the landscape level. However, obtaining sufficient ecological information about tuco-tucos is challenging due to the majority of life activities taking place underground. In this chapter, we discuss spatial habitat use patterns, general ecological characteristics, species interactions, and social structure in tuco-tucos, as well as their impacts on the local environment and implications for conservation. Despite many previous studies of tuco-tucos having estimated ecological data using various approaches, it remains difficult to corroborate those data with ecological parameters at broad scales.