New tiger cat species identified in Bolivia, first in over a century

Leopardus tilcayo is the first new living cat species named and described in more than a century.

A Leopardus tilcayo cat, a newly identified species through research led by National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales Ascarrunz, walks at the Senda Verde animal refuge in the Yungas region, Bolivia, September 1, 2026 [Handout/Fernando Faciole/Reuters]

A tiny wild cat that lives in Bolivia’s lush cloud forests has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time in more than a century that a new living feline species has been formally named and described.

Called “tilcayo” by local communities, the cat is part of a group called tiger cats, which are found across much of South America.

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It was discovered in the Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are often covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity, according to the researchers.

Given the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo, the cat measures 46cm (18 inches) long and weighs about 1.4kg (3 pounds), making it smaller than an average domestic cat.

“Its fur is light brown … with irregularly shaped rosettes across its body,” according to 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.

Little is known about the cat’s biology and lifestyle. 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, evolutionary biologist and study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp in Belgium said.

National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales Ascarrunz, who led the research that identified Leopardus tilcayo as a new species, observes the cat at the Senda Verde animal refuge in the Yungas region, in Bolivia, September 1, 2026 [Handout/Fernando Faciole/Reuters]

Observing the Bolivian cat drew interest because “its characteristics did not match the descriptions, most of them based on Brazilian cats”, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. “This made us wonder, what tiger cat do we actually have in Bolivia?”

The team analysed DNA from 38 cats sampled across several South American countries, including eight museum specimens. The study found that tiger cats are in fact five genetically distinct species.

“We never expected this Bolivian tiger cat to be a separate species, and no one had ever proposed it as a different animal, subspecies or otherwise,” Jonas Lescroart said.

Genetic analysis suggested that the tilcayo lineage separated from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.

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.

蒂尔卡约豹猫（Leopardus tilcayo）是一个多世纪以来第一个被命名和描述的新现存猫科动物物种。

2026年9月1日，在玻利维亚永加斯地区的森达维德动物保护区，一只新发现的豹猫（Leopardus tilcayo）正在行走。该物种是通过国家地理探险家保拉·诺加莱斯·阿斯卡伦兹（Paola Nogales Ascarrunz）领导的研究发现的。[图片来源：费尔南多·法西奥莱/路透社]

生活在玻利维亚茂密云雾森林中的一种小型野生猫科动物被确认为此前未知的物种，这标志着一个多世纪以来，首次正式命名和描述了一种新的现存猫科动物物种。

当地社区称之为“tilcayo”的这种猫属于虎猫科动物，虎猫分布于南美洲大部分地区。

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据研究人员称，它是在云加斯森林中发现的，云加斯森林是一个山区，那里的森林经常被云雾笼罩，湿度很高。

这种猫的学名是 Leopardus tilcayo，体长 46 厘米（18 英寸），体重约 1.4 公斤（3 磅），比一般的家猫要小。

据国家地理探险家、周四发表在《当代生物学》杂志上的描述新发现物种的研究报告的作者之一保拉·诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹 (Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz) 称，“它的毛皮呈浅棕色……身上有不规则形状的玫瑰花结状斑纹。”

人们对这种猫的生物学特性和生活习性知之甚少。诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹表示，粪便样本中发现的小型啮齿动物残骸表明它们可能是其食物的一部分，而红外相机拍摄的证据表明，它可能在夜间更加活跃。

比利时安特卫普大学的进化生物学家、该研究的共同第一作者乔纳斯·莱斯克罗特表示，虎猫是所谓的隐蔽物种，这意味着仅凭外表很难将它们区分开来。

2026年9月1日，领导研究并确认Leopardus tilcayo为新物种的美国国家地理探险家Paola Nogales Ascarrunz在玻利维亚永加斯地区的Senda Verde动物保护区观察这种猫科动物。[图片来源：Fernando Faciole/路透社]

诺加莱斯-阿斯卡伦兹说，观察这只玻利维亚猫之所以引起我们的兴趣，是因为“它的特征与大多数描述不符，而这些描述大多是基于巴西猫的”。“这让我们不禁思考，玻利维亚究竟有一种什么样的虎猫？”

研究团队分析了来自南美洲多个国家的38只猫科动物的DNA样本，其中包括8件博物馆藏品。研究发现，虎猫实际上是五个基因不同的物种。

“我们从未想过玻利维亚虎猫会是一个独立的物种，也从未有人提出过它是不同的动物、亚种或其他物种，”乔纳斯·莱斯克罗特说。

基因分析表明，蒂尔卡约虎猫的谱系大约在 140 万年前与其他虎猫分离。

研究小组还在秘鲁永加斯描述了一种新的虎猫亚种，将其命名为Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo，以安提苏尤（Antisuyu）命名，安提苏尤是旧印加帝国的地区，包括它所居住的地区。