Credit: Fernando Faciole/National Geographic
Doha, Qatar: Scientists have identified a new species of wild cat living in Bolivia’s cloud forests, marking the first time a living cat species has been formally described by science in more than a century.
The newly identified feline, named Leopardus tilcayo, or the tilcayo cat, lives in the Yungas, a mountainous cloud-forest region on the eastern slopes of the Andes where the mountains meet the Amazon basin.
The findings were published on Thursday in the scientific journal Current Biology following an extensive genetic study of South America’s tiger cats.
The tilcayo is smaller than an average domestic cat, measuring about 45 to 46 centimetres from head to body and weighing around 1.3 to 1.4 kilograms. It has a muted brown coat covered with large dark markings, rounded ears and a long, slender tail.
The story behind its identification began with an unusual encounter.
A local family found one of the animals as a kitten and initially believed it was a domestic cat. After keeping it at home, they eventually handed it over to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary in Bolivia, where its unusual appearance attracted the attention of researchers.
The male cat, now around 10 years old, has lived at the sanctuary since 2017 and became a key specimen in the research that ultimately established the tilcayo as a separate species.
Scientists analysed genetic material from 38 cats from eight Latin American countries, including samples from living animals and museum collections, to investigate the evolutionary history of tiger cats.
The genomic analysis showed that animals previously grouped together because of their similar appearance actually represent at least five distinct tiger-cat species, each with its own evolutionary history.
The tilcayo lineage is estimated to have separated from its closest relatives about 1.4 million years ago.
Researchers also identified a new tiger-cat subspecies in Peru, named Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.
Very little is currently known about the tilcayo in the wild.
Camera-trap observations indicate that it may be primarily nocturnal, while rodent remains found in scat suggest that small rodents form part of its diet.
Its total population and geographic range have yet to be established, and researchers are deploying additional camera traps across the Yungas to learn more about the animal.
The discovery also raises conservation concerns.
The Yungas forests support exceptional biodiversity but face pressure from deforestation, agricultural expansion, fires and mining.
Researchers have submitted their findings to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as recognising genetically distinct tiger-cat species separately could change assessments of their populations and extinction risks.
The tilcayo is the first living cat species newly described by science since the recognition of Leopardus fasciatus in 1923, according to researchers, making the Bolivian discovery a rare addition to one of the world's most extensively studied groups of mammals.
