Bolivia

New Wild Cat Species Found in Bolivia's Cloud Forest

Is the tilcayo the first new cat in a century or the fifth tiger cat hard to spot?

4 hours ago·Updated 3 hours ago

New Wild Cat Species Found in Bolivia's Cloud Forest

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Above: Stock photo of Geoffroy's cat (Leopardus geoffroyi), which is native to southern and central South America. Image credit: Arterra/Philippe Clément/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The Facts

Scientists have identified a previously unknown wild cat species in Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest, naming it "Leopardus tilcayo." The findings were published Thursday in the journal Current Biology, describing the first living cat species named in more than a century.
Nature is Amazing on X
Cell Press
The tilcayo measures roughly 18 inches, or 46 centimeters, in length and weighs about 3 pounds, or 1.4 kilograms, making it smaller than an average domestic cat. It has light-brown fur, rounded ears and irregularly shaped rosettes across its body.
Discover Wildlife
The Times of India
Researchers sequenced complete genomes from 38 cats across South and Central America, including eight museum specimens. They concluded that tiger cats comprise five distinct species and also described a new subspecies in Peru, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.
Live Science
Gizmodo
The discovery began when conservationist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz saw an unusually small cat at the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary near La Paz. A local man had brought the animal in after mistaking it for a domestic kitten and feeding it noodles, rice and eggs.
The Times of India
NBC
Genetic testing showed the tilcayo lineage diverged from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago. The team named the species after the word local Bolivian communities have used for generations, a name that does not translate into Spanish or Quechua.
National Geographic
Live Science
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently lists the northern and southern tiger cats as vulnerable, and researchers have shared their findings so each lineage can be assessed separately. Tiger cats face deforestation, wildlife trafficking and diseases spread by domestic dogs.
Gizmodo
Live Science

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The Spin

Narrative A

This is extremely exciting — a cat totally new to science, the first genuine felid species discovered in over a century. It isn't some old proposal finally validated or a subspecies bumped up in rank, which happens all the time. Credit belongs to the sharp-eyed Bolivian researcher who trusted her gut about those oversized rosettes and chased the genome until it confirmed the tilcayo.

National Geographic on X

National Geographic

Narrative B

This is the fifth tiger cat species now known to science — but most observers might never spot the difference. The tilcayo is beautiful but remarkably hard to distinguish from its close relatives, with all five tiger cats being morphologically similar and elusive. Genomic evidence is revealing just how much diversity was hiding beneath those nearly identical spotted coats.