Scientists have discovered a brand new species of wild cat, and it's smaller than yours
Leopardus tilcayo is the first new wild cat species identified by scientists since 1923
Dubai: Scientists have formally identified a new species of wild cat native to Bolivia, marking the first time in more than a hundred years that a living feline species has been described by researchers. The animal, named Leopardus tilcayo after the name used for it by local communities, was detailed in a study published in the journal Current Biology.
A cat smaller than most house cats
Leopardus tilcayo is a type of tiger cat, a small, spotted wild cat found across parts of South America. It measures around 46 centimetres in body length, with its tail adding a further 25 centimetres, and weighs between 1.5 and 2 kilograms, making it noticeably smaller and slighter than the average domestic cat. Its coat is light brown, patterned with irregularly shaped dark rosettes across its body, giving it an appearance not unlike a miniature leopard.
The species is native to Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest, a mountainous region where the Andes meet the Amazon basin. It's one of the least studied ecosystems in the Neotropical realm, despite being home to a significant number of species found nowhere else on Earth, a combination that likely allowed a new cat species to go unrecognised for so long.
How it was identified
The discovery traces back to a single animal that arrived at Senda Verde, a wildlife refuge in Bolivia's Yungas region, around 2017, after being handed over by a local family that had kept it as a pet. Researchers noticed the animal didn't quite match existing tiger cat species. "It didn't look like the other [cats], but we didn't expect a new species itself," said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a biologist and National Geographic Explorer who co-authored the study, describing the animal's arrival at the refuge.
What ultimately confirmed the discovery wasn't appearance but genetics. Researchers analysed DNA from both museum specimens and living animals, moving beyond the traditional method of classifying cats purely by how they look. That genetic analysis revealed the tiger cat group, long assumed to be a single species, actually comprises at least five distinct species, each with its own separate evolutionary history.
A family tree more complicated than expected
Tiger cats have puzzled researchers for decades. "Tiger cats have been enigmatic for decades," said Eduardo Eizirik, a professor at Brazil's Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, who collaborated on the study. The animals were "once thought to be a single species based on their similar appearance," he explained, but genetic evidence has now shown otherwise.
Alongside Leopardus tilcayo, the study also formally describes four related species: L. guttulus, L. emiliae, L. pardinoides and L. tigrinus, including a newly identified Peruvian subspecies, L. tigrinus antisuyo. According to the research, L. tilcayo split off from other Leopardus species roughly 1.4 million years ago, making it a genuinely distinct lineage rather than a regional variant of an existing species.
The first new cat species in over a century
The last time scientists formally described a new living cat species was in 1923, with the Uruguayan pampas cat, Leopardus fasciatus. That gap makes Leopardus tilcayo's identification a notable moment for wildlife biology, particularly given how rare it is for an entirely new species within such a well-studied family, cats, to still be waiting to be found.
Very little is currently known about the tilcayo cat's biology or behaviour in the wild. Remains of small rodents found in scat samples suggest they may form part of its diet, while evidence gathered from camera traps indicates the species could be more active at night. Descriptions of the species are currently based on only two known living individuals: one photographed and documented in the wild, and the other, still living at Senda Verde, in captivity.
What the name means
The species name honours the community that first identified the animal, rather than following the more traditional route of naming it after a researcher or a physical trait. "We chose to name the species Tilcayo, the name local communities use to describe the cat," Nogales-Ascarrunz said. "It's our way of honouring their ancestral knowledge and connection to this animal."
With only two confirmed individuals known to researchers so far, much about Leopardus tilcayo's population, range and conservation status remains to be understood, leaving plenty for scientists to still uncover about a species that, until now, had been living entirely under the radar.
