A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living cat species has been formally named and described in more than a century.
Researchers used genetic data to confirm that the cat is a new species, and gave it the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, retaining its local name. Little is yet known about the cat’s biology and lifestyle. The study found that tiger cats are in fact five genetically distinct species. The research team also described a new tiger cat subspecies in Peru’s Yungas, naming it Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo after Antisuyu, the region of the old Inca Empire that included the area it inhabits.
The team analysed DNA from 38 cats sampled across several South American countries, including eight museum specimens.
Secretive jungle cats need habitats outside protected areas: study “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. Remains of small rodents in scat samples suggest they may form part of its diet, while camera-trap evidence indicates it could be more active at night, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. Tiger cats are so-called cryptic species, meaning they cannot easily be distinguished merely by appearance, said evolutionary biologist and study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp in Belgium. “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.”
