An individual of Leopardus tilcayo resides at Senda Verde Animal Refuge in Bolivia’s Yungas region. The animal is the only known individual of the species living in protective captivity. It arrived at the sanctuary around 2017 after being turned over
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A small wild cat living in Bolivia’s cloud forests has been identified as a previously unknown species. It is the first new living cat species to be formally named and described in more than 100 years.
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Local communities call the animal Tilcayo. It belongs to a group of tiger cats found throughout much of South America and was discovered in Bolivia’s Yungas forest, a mountainous region known for its humid, cloud-covered forests.
The cat is about 18 inches (46 centimeters) long and weighs roughly 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms), making it smaller than an average house cat.
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Researchers used genetic testing to confirm that the animal is a distinct species. They gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo while preserving its local name.
Why you should care:
“Its fur is light brown … with irregularly shaped rosettes across its body,” said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic Explorer and one of the authors of the study describing the newly identified species published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology, opens new tab.
Big picture view:
Scientists still know little about the cat’s behavior and lifestyle. Scat samples contained the remains of small rodents, suggesting they may be part of its diet. Camera-trap images also indicate that the cat may be active primarily at night, Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
Tiger cats are considered cryptic species because they can be difficult to tell apart based on their physical appearance alone, said Jonas Lescroart, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and a co-lead author of the study.
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Scientists once considered all tiger cats to be a single species. Genetic research conducted decades ago, however, indicated that the group may include several distinct species.
Referring to the newly identified cat, Lescroart said, “Our information at this moment is limited to the two live individuals that we examined, and a small number of camera-trap records.”
One of the two live cats is a 10-year-old male. It now lives at the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary after previously being kept inside a local family’s home.
An individual of Leopardus tilcayo resides at Senda Verde Animal Refuge in Bolivia’s Yungas region. The animal is the only known individual of the species living in protective captivity. It arrived at the sanctuary around 2017 after being turned over
The backstory:
Scientists became interested in the Bolivian cat because “its characteristics did not match the descriptions, most of them based on Brazilian cats,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said. “This made us wonder: what tiger cat do we actually have in Bolivia?”
The researchers analyzed DNA from 38 cats collected in several South American countries, including eight museum specimens. Their findings showed that tiger cats consist of five genetically distinct species.
“We never expected this Bolivian tiger cat to be a separate species, and no one had ever proposed it as a different animal, subspecies or otherwise,” Lescroart said.
The genetic analysis indicated that the Tilcayo lineage split from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.
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“The more differences in their DNA, the longer the time that we estimate those lineages to have been physically separated,” Lescroart said, adding that this level of separation is generally considered enough to distinguish separate cat species.
The research team also identified a new tiger cat subspecies in Peru’s Yungas region. They named it Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo after Antisuyu, a region of the former Inca Empire that included the area where the subspecies lives.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, currently lists tiger cats as two vulnerable species with declining populations.
The researchers have submitted their findings to the IUCN, which plans to review the five lineages separately. A separate assessment could provide a clearer picture of the cats’ conservation status. Lescroart said the Tilcayo could potentially be classified as endangered when evaluated on its own.
A more precise assessment is especially important in the Yungas, one of the region’s most threatened ecosystems.
National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales isolates DNA from blood samples collected from a wild cat species. The DNA will be sequenced for biometric analysis. Photo by Fernando Faciole/National Geographic.
Why you should care:
The mountain forests face increasing pressure from deforestation, agriculture, human-caused wildfires and mining, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. She added that urgent conservation priorities include restoring forest areas damaged by fires, protecting remaining native forests and preserving connections between habitats.
“Showing the general public that even in a flagship group such as cats … there are still new species to be discovered may transmit an important message,” said Eduardo Eizirik, an evolutionary biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and senior author of the study. “There are many undiscovered species out there in the world, and they are at risk of disappearing before we even discover them.”
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