{"id":628258,"date":"2026-09-18T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628258\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:00:20","slug":"new-tiger-cat-species-identified-in-bolivia-first-in-over-a-century-environment-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628258\/","title":{"rendered":"New tiger cat species identified in Bolivia, first in over a century | Environment News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leopardus tilcayo is the first new living cat species named and described in more than a century.<\/p>\n

Published On 18 Sep 202618 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

A tiny wild cat that lives in Bolivia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Called \u201ctilcayo\u201d by local communities, the cat is part of a group called tiger cats, which are found across much of South America.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 2 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts fur is light brown \u2026 with irregularly shaped rosettes across its body,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Little is known about the cat\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"NationalNational 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]<\/p>\n

Observing the Bolivian cat drew interest because \u201cits characteristics did not match the descriptions, most of them based on Brazilian cats\u201d, Nogales-Ascarrunz said. \u201cThis made us wonder, what tiger cat do we actually have in Bolivia?\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d Lescroart said.<\/p>\n

Genetic analysis suggested that the tilcayo lineage separated from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.<\/p>\n

The research team also described a new tiger cat subspecies in Peru\u2019s Yungas, naming it Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo, after Antisuyu, the region of the old Inca Empire that included the area it inhabits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leopardus tilcayo is the first new living cat species named and described in more than a century. Published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[60147,1347,246,61,60,19144,43,24787,82,3971,263],"class_list":["post-628258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-bolivia","tag-brazil","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-peru","tag-science","tag-science-and-technology","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}