A previously unknown cat species has been identified in plain sight: at a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia, where the small, spotted feline had been living for years.
The discovery, reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology, marks the first time scientists have named and described a new living wild cat species in more than a century.
Bolivian biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic explorer and one of the study’s lead authors, said a colleague who thought the cat looked unusual invited her to examine it at the sanctuary in the country’s Yungas region, where she volunteered, a couple hours' drive from the administrative capital of La Paz.
A local family had left it there after finding it in the forest and struggling to keep it as a pet. What struck her was its size, she said — smaller than an average house cat, the male, now about 10 years old, measures 18 inches (46 centimeters) from its head to the base of its tail and weighs just 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). Its light brown coat is patterned with dark, leopardlike spots.
“Knowing other wild cats, it was peculiar,” she said. “He really is tiny.”
To locate the cat in South America’s feline family tree, researchers compared genomes — complete sets of genetic instructions — from over 30 cats across locations including Colombia, Peru and Brazil. Bones and skins preserved in US and European museums supplied DNA to fill the gaps where fresh samples were unavailable.
The analysis revealed that the sanctuary cat belonged to a previously unrecognized species whose lineage split from its relatives about 1.4 million years ago. The last feline species formally identified was the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923.
“During naturalist expeditions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, this cat was never collected and the species was never properly described,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
While some species are named after scientists or explorers, the researchers named this one Leopardus tilcayo, preserving the moniker used by communities in the tropical cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia where the animal lives.
“This isn’t an animal that nobody had ever seen before. Local communities knew it existed, but until now science had not recognized it as a separate species,” said Wai-Ming Wong, an expert with the global wild cat conservation group Panthera, in an email. Wong had no role in the new research.
The findings helped unravel a longstanding mystery about South America’s tiger cats, which scientists once classified as a single species because they look so much alike. The researchers' DNA analysis pointed to at least five distinct species — four previously named, plus the newly described tilcayo.
“Even in groups that are very well studied, like the cat family, apparently there’s still a diversity that is hidden,” said evolutionary biologist and study co-author Jonas Lescroart with the University of Antwerp.
The next challenge is finding out more about these tiny cats in the wild.
“We still don’t know how many there are,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said, adding that researchers still need to establish details about the new tiger cat's diet, behavior and habitat. Its presence has been confirmed only in Bolivia’s Yungas forests, but its full range remains unknown.
Scientists hope the designation of the new species will help protect its forest habitat, which faces threats from accelerating deforestation and gold mining.
“We should make haste in doing these kinds of discoveries, because all of this biodiversity is under pressure, and it’s disappearing as we speak,” Lescroart said.
