Bolivia’s Tiny Tiger Cat Is the First New Cat Species Named in More Than 100 Years

Meet the Tilcayo: Bolivia’s Tiny Tiger Cat Is the First New Cat Species Named in More Than 100 Years

A small spotted cat from Bolivia’s cloud forests has a scientific name of its own. On 17 September 2026, researchers formally described Leopardus tilcayo, known locally as the tilcayo, in the journal Current Biology. The finding is the first time a new living cat species has been named and described in more than a century.

Local communities already knew the animal. Science did not. That gap is what makes this story land so hard. If this surprised you, drop a comment with the first word that came to mind. Then like this piece and follow for the next wildlife briefing.

source: Wikimedia Commons / Alessandro Verniani

A “weird cat” that did not fit the field guides

The trail began years before the paper. Bolivian biologist and National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz was contacted about a “weird cat” at the Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary in the Yungas. A local resident had found the animal as a kitten near forest and kept it at home, believing it was a domestic cat. The family later turned it over after noticing predator behavior, including hunting chickens, and a meow that did not match a house cat.

The male later lived at Senda Verde and became the holotype, catalogued as CBF-11990. Sanctuary staff have called him Tigrino. He is about 10 years old and remains the only confirmed individual of the species in protective captivity. Researchers also examined a second living animal and a small number of camera-trap records. That is still a thin evidence base, and the team has said as much.

The type locality is near Arapata, in Nor Yungas Province, La Paz Department, at 1,570 meters above sea level. The habitat is the Bolivian Yungas, a humid cloud-forest belt on the eastern slope of the Andes.

What the tilcayo looks like, and why DNA settled the case

Leopardus tilcayo belongs to the South American tiger cat group in the genus Leopardus. These cats are cryptic. They look alike, so appearance alone has long been a poor guide.

Confirmed measurements from the description put head-body length at 425 to 505 millimeters and tail length at 250 to 265 millimeters. Adult weight is reported at 1.5 to 2.0 kilograms. News summaries of the research team often describe the cat as about 46 centimeters long and about 1.4 kilograms, smaller than an average domestic cat.

The coat is light brown, with large, irregular, mostly open rosettes that do not coalesce. The ears are short and rounded. The whiskers are long. Nogales-Ascarrunz has described the fur as light brown “with irregularly shaped rosettes across its body.”

Looks were not enough. An international team compared complete genomes from 38 Leopardus individuals, including eight museum specimens. The analysis found that tiger cats comprise five genetically distinct species. The Bolivian lineage split from related tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago. Co-lead author Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp said the team had not expected the Bolivian cat to be a separate species, and that no one had previously proposed it as one.

The scientific name keeps the local name. The authors listed on the new species are Nogales-Ascarrunz, Aliaga-Rossel, Lescroart, and Eizirik, 2026. The same paper also named a Peruvian subspecies, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.

source: Wikimedia Commons / Alessandro Verniani

What is known, and what is still missing

This is not a fossil. It is a living cat that local people already recognized. Researchers chose the name tilcayo to honor that knowledge. The last widely cited formal description of a new living cat species is the pampas cat Leopardus fasciatus, named in 1923.

The wild population size is not known. Diet, predators, reproduction, and home range remain poorly documented. As of the September 2026 announcement, the species has not been given a separate IUCN Red List assessment. Camera-trap work in the Yungas is underway to find more animals in the wild.

Watch a news report on the discovery here: Tiny cat discovered in Bolivia said to be 1st new feline species in over 100 years

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#Tilcayo #LeopardusTilcayo #NewCatSpecies #BoliviaWildlife #TigerCat

Sources

• Lescroart, Nogales-Ascarrunz, Eizirik and colleagues, “Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats in South America,” Current Biology, 17 September 2026
• National Geographic, “Meet the First New Cat Species Discovered in 100 Years”
• Reuters / CNN, “Meet the tiny wild cat that’s new to science”
• The Guardian, “New cat species identified for first time in more than a century in Bolivia”
• New Scientist, “Beautiful new cat species is first to be named in a century”