New Bolivian cat claws its way into species list: What we meow

Researchers have formally identified a new species of small wildcat in Bolivia, designating it Leopardus tilcayo. The animal was first brought to scientific attention after a local family found a lone kitten in the Bolivian Yungas and later surrendered it to the Senda Verde animal refuge when its wild behavior became apparent. Field biologists and geneticists then spent nearly ten years assembling evidence to determine the animal’s taxonomic status. Genetic analyses published in Current Biology show the tilcayo is distinct from other tiger‑like small cats previously grouped in the region. The research team combined new DNA samples with existing genomic data from multiple South American countries and even extracted DNA from century‑old museum skulls to resolve relationships within this cryptic group. Those combined data indicated the tiger‑cat complex comprises five distinct species, rather than the two to four species previously expected. The tilcayo has so far been genetically confirmed only in Bolivia’s Yungas, a rugged, humid transitional band of cloud forest on the eastern Andean slopes that connects high mountains and the Amazon basin. Researchers say it remains unclear whether the species is restricted to a small area of that ecoregion or has a wider distribution across the Yungas, which also extend into Peru and northern Argentina. Scientists involved in the study described the discovery as rare for the cat family. Unlike some recent taxonomic revisions that reinstate older names for previously misclassified populations, Leopardus tilcayo had not been formally described or named before. The formal description and naming were led by Paola Nogales Ascarrunz, with coauthors including Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp and collaborators from Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, the United States, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Peru.