A tiny wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living feline species has been formally named and described in more than a century. The cat, called tilcayo by local communities, is part of a group called tiger cats found in much of South America. According to researchers, it was found in Bolivia’s lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity. It is about 18 inches (46 cm) long and weighs about 3 pounds (1.4 kg), making it smaller than the average house cat. The researchers used genetic data to confirm that the cat is a new species and gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, while retaining its local name. A Leopardus tilcayo cat at the Senda Verde animal shelter in the Yungas region of Bolivia on September 1, 2026. Photograph: Fernando Faciole/Nacional Geographic/Reuters “Its fur is light brown… with irregularly shaped rosettes all over its body,” said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic explorer and one of the authors of the study describing the newly identified species published Thursday in the journal Current Biology. Little is still known about the cat’s biology and lifestyle. Remains of small rodents in fecal samples suggest they may be part of their diet, while evidence from camera traps indicates they may be more active at night, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. Tiger cats are so-called cryptic species, meaning they cannot be easily distinguished simply by their appearance, said evolutionary biologist and co-lead author of the study Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Tiger cats had previously been considered a single species, but genetic studies decades ago suggested the existence of multiple species. A Tilcayo cat, the only known individual of the newly identified species living in protective captivity. Photograph: Fernando Faciole/National Geographic/Reuters Referring to the new species, Lescroart said: “Our information at the moment is limited to the two live individuals we examined and a small number of camera trap records.” One of the live cats is a 10-year-old male who now lives at the Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia after being kept by a local family in their home. Observing the Bolivian cat attracted interest 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 really have in Bolivia?” The team analyzed the DNA of 38 cats sampled in several South American countries, including eight museum specimens. The study found that tiger cats are, in fact, 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. Genetic analysis suggested that the Tilcayo lineage diverged from other tiger cats approximately 1.4 million years ago. It is generally considered a division at the species level in cats. The research team also described a new subspecies of tiger cat in the Yungas region of Peru, naming it Leopardus tigrinus antisuyu in honor of Antisuyu, the region of the ancient Inca empire that included the area where it lives. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list that tracks the status of the species currently treats tiger cats as two “vulnerable” species with declining populations. The researchers have shared their findings with the IUCN, whose next review will evaluate the five lineages separately. That could give a more accurate picture of risk, Lescroart said, and species like the tilcayo could be considered endangered when assessed on their own. The need for a clearer assessment is particularly acute in the Yungas, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the region. Mountain forests face increasing pressure from deforestation, agricultural expansion, man-made fires and mining, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. Restoring forest patches damaged by fire, protecting remaining native forests and maintaining connections between habitats are urgent priorities, he added. “Showing the general public that even in an emblematic group like cats… there are still new species to be discovered can convey an important message,” said Eduardo Eizirik, an evolutionary biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and lead author of the study. “There are many undiscovered species in the world and they are at risk of disappearing even before we discover them.”
