Small Cat Makes Big News!
An international team of scientists has identified a new wild cat species unique to Bolivia’s Yungas cloud forest. It’s the first new cat species identified in more than 100 years!
When you hear of a wild cat, you probably imagine large critters like tigers and leopards. But the newest member of the wild cat family, known as the tilcayo, weighs just 3–4 pounds, smaller than most house cats! The tiny cat has rounded ears, a small face, and big, irregular-shaped, leopard-like spots. The scientists who identified the new species in a publication last month said that this is a good reminder about the mysteries in the natural world.
“Our world is extremely complex,” said
biologist and study co-author Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. “Sometimes we think that most of it is known, that there’s not a whole lot to discover, but in fact, it’s the other way around.”
While the world may have just learned of this cat, a male nicknamed Tigrino, his discovery dates back to 2016. A local man found a tiny cat on a road in the forest. He mistook it for a domestic kitten and took it home. After a year of caring for the cat, the man realized the critter was probably wild, so he took him to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary.
Nogales-Ascarrunz first met Tigrino at the sanctuary and began to suspect that he was something new. Scientists used genome sequencing to identify this new species, which revealed that South America’s “tiger cats” consist of five distinct species.
While it’s exciting to find a new cat species, the discovery could have conservation consequences. The more species that are spread across an area of land, the more vulnerable a species can become. This requires protection from threats like deforestation and disease.
“Once three species become five species, each population is reduced,” said Jim Sanderson, founder and director of the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation. “Therefore, conservation efforts must increase, perhaps urgently, depending on estimated population sizes.”
New Wild Cat Facts:
- Species name: Leopardus tilcayo
- Weight: 3-4 pounds
- Home country: Bolivia
