A spotted wild cat from Bolivia has been confirmed as a previously unrecognised species after researchers used DNA to distinguish it from closely related tiger cats. The species has been named Leopardus tilcayo, or the Tilcaya cat, according to Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz of Universidad Mayor de San Andres in La Paz.
The only confirmed living member is a 10-year-old cat called Tigrino, which lives at a wildlife rescue sanctuary in Bolivia. It was found in a forest by a local resident who initially believed it was a domestic kitten. As the animal grew, its behaviour suggested that it was a wild cat rather than a house cat.
Nogales-Ascarrunz became involved after noticing that Tigrino looked unusual while she was volunteering at the sanctuary. She had also heard reports of similar small wild cats in the dense forests of Bolivia’s Yungas region, but those sightings had not been investigated by scientists.
She and international colleagues examined the family history of tiger cats using DNA from living animals and museum specimens. The study, published in Current Biology, concluded that there are likely to be five tiger cat species rather than the three previously recognised, including the newly described Bolivian species.
Tiger cats are small, spotted felines found across Central and South America. Their similar markings make them difficult to identify, and Eduardo Eizirik, a conservation geneticist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, said the new species had remained overlooked partly because there were few records, photographs or museum specimens.
Caroline Sartor of the University of Oxford’s Wildlife Conservation Research Unit said identifying the animal was essential to conservation, because a species cannot be protected effectively if its identity and distribution are unknown. Tiger cats face threats including deforestation, habitat loss and illegal hunting. The findings could also increase the recognised number of living cat species from 41 to 44 or more, although scientists believe further fieldwork is needed to determine whether other Tilcaya cats survive in the wild.