Scientists have identified a previously unknown wild cat species in Bolivia’s misty cloud forests, marking a major discovery for feline research.
Called the tilcayo by local communities, the diminutive animal is about 18 inches (46cm) long and weighs roughly 3lb (1.4kg)—smaller than the average house cat.
The cat was found in Bolivia’s Yungas forest, a rugged mountainous landscape covered by humid vegetation and frequently enveloped in clouds.
Genetic testing confirmed that the animal represents a distinct species. Researchers have named it Leopardus tilcayo, preserving the name used by people who live in the region.
It is the first living feline species to be formally named and described in more than 100 years.
The tilcayo is part of the tiger cat group, a collection of small South American felines distributed across much of the continent.
Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic explorer and study co-author, described the cat’s coat as light brown with irregular rosettes spread across its body. The research was published Thursday in Current Biology.
Despite the breakthrough, researchers have only a limited understanding of the elusive animal’s behaviour and way of life.
Rodent remains found in scat suggest that small mammals may be among its prey. Camera-trap images, meanwhile, indicate the tilcayo could be primarily active after dark.
Scientists have identified a tiny new wild cat species in Bolivia’s cloud forests.
Known locally as the tilcayo, the cat is about 18 inches (46cm) long and weighs approximately 3lb (1.4kg), less than a typical domestic cat.
The newly identified feline inhabits Bolivia’s Yungas forest, a mountainous region of lush, cloud-covered woodland.
Tiger cats are known as “cryptic species” because distinct species can look remarkably similar and are often impossible to separate by appearance alone.
For years, scientists treated them as a single species. Later genetic studies revealed that the group contained several separate lineages.
Jonas Lescroart, an evolutionary biologist at Belgium’s University of Antwerp and co-lead author of the study, said researchers currently have data from only two living tilcayos, along with a limited number of camera-trap records.
One of the two cats is a 10-year-old male now housed at Bolivia’s Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary. Before arriving there, he had been kept by a local family.
The animal first drew scientific attention because its physical characteristics differed from established descriptions of tiger cats—descriptions based largely on specimens from Brazil.
To investigate, the team examined DNA from 38 cats collected in several South American countries, including eight specimens held in museums.
The genetic results indicate that tiger cats are not one species but a group of five genetically distinct species.
“We never expected this Bolivian tiger cat to be a separate species,” Lescroart said. “No one had previously suggested that it was a different animal, whether as a species, subspecies or otherwise.”
Genetic analysis indicated that the tilcayo’s lineage split from other tiger cats around 1.4million years ago.
The researchers also identified a new tiger cat subspecies in Peru’s Yungas region, which they named Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo after Antisuyu, the region of the Inca empire that once included its habitat.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature currently treats tiger cats as two vulnerable species with declining populations.
Researchers have now shared their findings with the IUCN, which is expected to consider the five lineages separately in its next review.
Scientists said this could reveal that individual species, including the tilcayo, face a greater threat of extinction than previously recognised.
Bolivia’s Yungas forests are under increasing pressure from deforestation, expanding agriculture, human-caused fires and mining.
Eduardo Eizirik, an evolutionary biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and senior author of the study, said the discovery showed how much of the natural world remains unknown.
‘There are many undiscovered species out there in the world, and they are at risk of disappearing before we even discover them,’ he said.
