Scientists have identified a previously unknown wild cat species in Bolivia, marking the first time in more than a century that researchers have formally named and described a new living wild cat species.
The discovery, reported Thursday in the journal Current Biology, was made after researchers examined a small, spotted feline that had been living for years at a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia’s Yungas region.
Bolivian biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic explorer and lead author of the study, was asked to examine the unusual animal by a colleague. A local family had brought the cat to the sanctuary after finding it in the forest and being unable to keep it as a pet.
The male cat, now around 10 years old, is smaller than an average house cat. It measures about 18 inches (46 centimetres) from its head to the base of its tail and weighs roughly 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). Its light brown coat is covered with dark, leopard-like spots.
“Knowing other wild cats, it was peculiar,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said. “He really is tiny.”
To determine the animal’s place in the feline family tree, researchers compared genomes from more than 30 cats collected across South America, including Colombia, Peru and Brazil. They also examined DNA from bones and skins preserved in museums in the United States and Europe.
The analysis showed that the sanctuary cat belongs to a previously unrecognized species whose lineage separated from related cats about 1.4 million years ago.
The last living wild cat species to be formally identified was the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923.
The researchers named the new species Leopardus tilcayo, using a name traditionally used by communities in Bolivia’s tropical Andean cloud forests 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 who was not involved in the study.
The research also shed light on South America’s tiger cats, which had long been classified as a single species because of their similar appearance.
Genetic analysis indicated that there are at least five distinct tiger cat species — four previously recognized and the newly described L. tilcayo.
“Even in groups that are very well studied, like the cat family, apparently there’s still a diversity that is hidden,” said study co-author Jonas Lescroart, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Antwerp.
Researchers now hope to learn more about the tiny cats in the wild, including their population, diet, behaviour and habitat. So far, the species has been confirmed only in Bolivia’s Yungas forests, while its full geographic range remains unknown.
Scientists said identifying the new species could help strengthen efforts to protect its forest habitat, which is threatened by 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.