A new species of wildcat has been discovered in the forests of Bolivia, marking the first official record of a new living feline species in more than a century.
The small animal, which local communities call the tilcayo, was found in the lush, misty forests of the Yungas, a mountainous region of Bolivia with high humidity and dense vegetation. It belongs to the group of ocelots, small wild felines found throughout much of South America.
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Researchers confirmed through genetic analysis that this is a distinct species of jaguar cat and gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, while retaining its local name.
New cat alert! A call from a wildlife sanctuary about a “weird cat” has led to the discovery of the first new cat species in over 100 years in Bolivia’s Yungas forest ecoregion. Learn more about this feline surprise: https://t.co/crffXvPqH4 pic.twitter.com/USo7rI3Y5q
— National Geographic (@NatGeo) September 17, 2026
The tilkagio is about 46 centimeters long and weighs just 1.4 kilograms, making it smaller than the average domestic cat. “Its fur is light brown, with irregular rosette-shaped spots all over its body,” said Paola Nogales-Ascarunz, a National Geographic researcher and one of the authors of the study published in the scientific journal Current Biology.
Scientists still know very little about the tilka’s biology and lifestyle. Analysis of fecal samples revealed traces of small rodents, suggesting that they likely form part of its diet. At the same time, footage from surveillance cameras suggests that it may be more active at night.
Felines in the tiger cat group are called “hidden species” because they cannot be easily distinguished based solely on their outward appearance. “We can’t tell them apart just by looking at them,” explained evolutionary biologist Jonas Lescroix of the University of Antwerp, one of the study’s lead authors.
For many years, scientists believed that jaguars constituted a single species. However, genetic studies over the past few decades have shown that there were several distinct genetic lineages.
The research team analyzed DNA from 38 felids in various South American countries, including eight museum specimens. The results showed that jaguars are, in fact, composed of five distinct genetic species.
“We never expected that this Bolivian felid would constitute a separate species. No one had previously proposed it as a distinct animal or subspecies,” said Lescroix.
According to the genetic analysis, the evolutionary lineage of Leopardus tilcayo diverged from the other jaguars approximately 1.4 million years ago.
One of the two living specimens studied is a 10-year-old male, who is currently housed at the Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia, having previously lived with a local family. It was the observation of this individual that piqued the researchers’ interest, as its characteristics did not match the descriptions, which were based primarily on felids from Brazil.
“This made us wonder: which feline from the jaguarundi group do we actually have in Bolivia?” said Nogales-Ascarunz.
At the same time, the researchers also described a new subspecies of jaguar from the Yungas region of Peru, which they named Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo, after the Antisuyo region of the ancient Inca Empire.
The discovery of the tilcayo comes at a time when the Yungas forests face growing threats from deforestation, agricultural expansion, wildfires, and mining.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently classifies tiger-tailed macaques as “vulnerable,” with their populations in decline. The new data will be evaluated so that the five distinct genetic lineages can be examined independently. Eduardo Eizirique, an evolutionary biologist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and one of the study’s authors, emphasized that the discovery shows that even within well-known animal groups, there are species that remain unknown. “There are many species in the world that have not yet been discovered and are in danger of becoming extinct before we even know they exist,” the expert notes.
Source: Proto Thema
