tarbagan

plural tarbagans

1. Any member of the species Marmota sibirica of marmots that live on the steppes of Central Asia.

   One can only guess which rodent was most readily to be found near Lake Issyk-Koul in 1338 but the experience of later epidemics points to the tarbagan or Manchurian marmot, a beguiling squirrel-like creature much hunted for its skin.

   1969, Philip Ziegler, The Black Death, Folio Society, published 2007, page 13