Researchers have identified a previously unknown small wild cat in Bolivia's Yungas region and given it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, after the nickname local communities use for it, according to studies published in the journal Current Biology. The cat measures about 46 centimetres (18 inches) long and weighs roughly 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds), making it smaller than an average domestic cat, with light brown fur and irregularly shaped rosettes across its body, according to researcher Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. Multiple sources describe it as the first new living feline species named and described in more than a century, the previous one being the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923. The research was published on a Thursday, according to CBS News, Al Jazeera English and BBC News, with CBS News reporting the work began in 2021.
Scientists identify small wild cat in Bolivia as a new species, Leopardus tilcayo
Researchers have identified a previously unknown small wild cat in Bolivia's Yungas region and given it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, after the nickname local communities use for it, according to studies published in the journal Current Biology. The cat measures about 46 centimetres (18 inches) long and weighs roughly 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds), making it smaller than an average domestic cat, with light brown fur and irregularly shaped rosettes across its body, according to researcher Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. Multiple sources describe it as the first new living feline species named and described in more than a century, the previous one being the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923. The research was published on a Thursday, according to CBS News, Al Jazeera English and BBC News, with CBS News reporting the work began in 2021.
The animal was found in Bolivia's Yungas forest, described by Deutsche Welle as a remote region on the eastern slope of the Andes mountains and by Al Jazeera English as a mountainous cloud forest area. CBS News says the cat was identified in the mountainous Yungas region near the capital, La Paz. Nogales-Ascarrunz, a biologist and National Geographic Explorer who led the research, said the species has so far been detected only in Bolivia and not anywhere else on the planet.
Several sources describe how the animal first came to scientific attention. Deutsche Welle, citing National Geographic, reports that Nogales-Ascarrunz first encountered the animal in 2016 after a call from a local wildlife sanctuary, which said it had been handed what it described as a weird cat; she told National Geographic she took a hundred pictures of it and was fascinated. BBC News reports that Nogales-Ascarrunz was volunteering at a sanctuary when she noticed a cat that looked unusual, a 10-year-old animal nicknamed 'Tigrino' that had been found in the forest by a local resident who initially thought it was a domestic kitten but later found it did not behave like a house cat. Photographs from the Senda Verde animal refuge in the Yungas region, dated September 1, 2026, accompany the reports.
According to Al Jazeera English, the team analysed DNA from 38 cats sampled across several South American countries, including eight museum specimens, and concluded that tiger cats are in fact five genetically distinct species. BBC News likewise reports the study suggested there are five rather than three tiger cat species, including the newly described Leopardus tilcayo. Al Jazeera English reports that genetic analysis suggested the tilcayo lineage separated from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago, and that the team also described a new tiger cat subspecies in Peru's Yungas, named Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo. Deutsche Welle reports that co-lead authors Nogales-Ascarrunz and Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp worked with geneticist Eduardo Eizirik to place the feline in the cat family tree.
Al Jazeera English reports that little is known about the cat's biology and lifestyle: remains of small rodents in scat samples suggest they may form part of its diet, and camera-trap evidence indicates it could be more active at night, according to Nogales-Ascarrunz. CBS News reports that Nogales-Ascarrunz said the creatures were classified as vulnerable to extinction, and that their small numbers meant they could soon be considered at much greater risk of dying out.
Eizirik, described by Deutsche Welle as an evolutionary biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and by BBC News as a conservation geneticist there, said that showing the public there are still new species to be discovered even in a group such as cats may carry an important message, and that many undiscovered species are at risk of disappearing before they are discovered. He also told BBC News there are so few records or pictures, and no individual in a museum, that the cat was hiding because nobody was looking. Lescroart said tiger cats are so-called cryptic species that cannot easily be distinguished by appearance alone, and that no one had previously proposed the Bolivian tiger cat as a different animal or subspecies.
CBS News reports that a male tilcayo is living at an animal shelter in Yungas after being handed over by a family that had taken it in, and that a female was rescued and released into the wild after being attacked by locals. BBC News reports that only one confirmed living member of the species is known, a cat in a rescue sanctuary in Bolivia, while scientists believe others exist.
Nogales-Ascarrunz drew attention to the observation that the animal's characteristics did not match descriptions based mostly on Brazilian cats, and said the local nickname 'tilcayo' inspired the scientific designation. She described the finding as a remarkable event because a new wild cat species had not been described in 100 years.
Where sources differ
- CBS News and Deutsche Welle report that a pair of tilcayos — described as the only such creatures found so far — have undergone whole genome sequencing, with CBS News reporting a male living at an animal shelter in Yungas and a female rescued and released into the wild. BBC News reports that only one confirmed living member of the species is known, a cat in a rescue sanctuary in Bolivia, while saying scientists believe others exist.
- BBC News describes the sanctuary animal as a 10-year-old cat nicknamed 'Tigrino' and says Nogales-Ascarrunz noticed it while volunteering at the sanctuary. Deutsche Welle, citing National Geographic, says she first came upon the animal in 2016 after receiving a call from a local wildlife sanctuary about what it called a weird cat.
- CBS News says the research was published on Thursday and began in 2021; Deutsche Welle says only that it was published this week.
- No source establishes how many tilcayos exist in the wild, and the reported disagreement over the number of known individuals is unresolved.
- None of the sources names the body or authority that classified the species as vulnerable to extinction, or states whether it has been formally assessed by a conservation organisation.
- It is not established whether the female that CBS News reports was released into the wild after being attacked by locals survived, or what became of her.
- No source includes comment from Bolivian government or wildlife authorities, or from the Senda Verde animal refuge where the identified cat is reported to be held, or from the family reported to have handed over a cat.
- The cat's biology and lifestyle remain largely unestablished beyond reported rodent remains in scat samples and camera-trap indications of possible night activity.
- None of the sources explains why BBC News reports only one confirmed living member while CBS News and Deutsche Welle report a pair found so far.
- CBS News — original
- Deutsche Welle — by Kieran Burke
- Al Jazeera English
- BBC News — by Helen Briggs