{"id":224640,"date":"2026-09-18T13:33:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-wild-cat-species-is-identified-for-first-time-in-100-years-researchers-say-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T13:33:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T13:33:01","slug":"new-wild-cat-species-is-identified-for-first-time-in-100-years-researchers-say-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-wild-cat-species-is-identified-for-first-time-in-100-years-researchers-say-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"New wild cat species is identified for first time in 100 years, researchers say – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the first time in a century, researchers say they\u2019ve identified a new species of wild cat previously unknown to science.
Leopardus tilcayo \u2014 <\/em>or the tilcayo tiger cat \u2014 is slender and spotted, with rounded ears. It is smaller than a typical house cat and lives in the Bolivian Yungas, the cloud forest where the Andes mountains meet the Amazon basin. The species was described for the first time in the journal Current Biology<\/a> on Thursday.
It\u2019s rare to find a new, relatively large mammal. Unsurprisingly, most newly discovered animal species are small in size, said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who co-authored the study and leads a wild cat conservation program called Programa de Investigaci\u00f3n de F\u00e9lidos Bolivia (Bolivian Felid Research and Conservation Program).
\u201cThis time, it\u2019s a cat. That\u2019s really novel. And it hasn\u2019t happened in 100 years,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one else had named it. No one else had described it.\u201d
The size of the Leopardus tilcayo <\/em>population is not clear yet.
\u201cWe really don\u2019t know how many cats are still in the wild,\u201d said Nogales-Ascarrunz, whose work as a conservationist is funded by National Geographic<\/a>. \u201cWe need science, we need more studies to answer this question, which is actually critical for its conservation.\u201d
Tiger cats \u2014 small, wild cats in the Leopardus genus native to South and Central America <\/em>\u2014 face stiff conservation challenges as development and agriculture expand.
The new study says there are five tiger cat species in South America.
\u201cAll of them are in habitats that are vanishing fast,\u201d said Tadeu de Oliveira, another co-author of the study and an ecologist at the State University of Maranh\u00e3o in Brazil.
Leopardus tilcayo <\/em>might have continued to escape notice if not for Nogales-Ascarrunz\u2019s sharp eyes. She volunteers at a wildlife rehabilitation center near La Paz called the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary.
\u201cI saw this cat. It was really, really small, and I couldn\u2019t believe how small it was,\u201d Nogales-Ascarrunz said. \u201cI thought it was a kitten.\u201d
The cat had been brought in by a man living in a community in the forest near La Paz who had mistaken the cat for a domestic kitten, according to details recorded by the sanctuary. He had fed the animal noodles, rice and eggs, only to realize it was wild and that he could not take care of it. So he brought it to the sanctuary.
Initially, colleagues at the sanctuary thought the animal might be a known tiger cat species from Brazil, but Nogales-Ascarrunz wasn\u2019t convinced.
\u201cIf you look at the spots or the tail, they really don\u2019t match,\u201d she said.
Nogales-Ascarrunz did genetic testing, using tissue from the tiger cat and a second animal that also turned up at Senda Verde. The results from those specimens revealed that the two cats were unique and from the same species, which had diverged from other tiger cat lineages about 1.4 million years ago. That\u2019s enough genetic distance to consider it a new species.
Nogales-Ascarrunz said, however, that local communities in Bolivia have been aware of the species\u2019 presence for generations.
\u201cThis cat, they call it tilcayo. And when you ask, \u2018Does it have some meaning in Quechua or Almyra and other Indigenous languages?\u2019 they say, \u2018No, my grandpa told me that\u2019s the tilcayo,\u2019\u201d Nogales-Ascarrunz said. \u201cThis is a traditional knowledge that they have in the community. We want to preserve that knowledge and we didn\u2019t want to give it another name.\u201d
It\u2019s not rare for scientists to add a mammal species to the taxonomy \u2014 they do so about 65 times a year<\/a>, according to a study released last year. But many of those new species \u2014 including some recently named wild cats \u2014 are the result of a split. That\u2019s when scientists realize what was once considered a single species has sufficient genetic distinctions to become two.
For example, the Sunda clouded leopard found on the island of Borneo \u2014 called Neofelis diardi <\/em>\u2014 was first recognized in 2006 when its genome was distinguished from its mainland counterparts. But examples of the Sunda clouded leopard were already in museums at that point.
The tilcayo, on the other hand, was completely novel to scientists.
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have specimens in museums,\u201d de Oliveira said. \u201cIt had never been collected before.\u201d
Nogales-Ascarrunz said this new species is likely in danger. She views the discovery as yet another argument in favor of conservation.
\u201cIt\u2019s a new reason to protect the world,\u201d she said.
Evan Bush is a science reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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