{"id":852323,"date":"2026-09-18T17:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T17:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852323\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T17:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T17:02:15","slug":"new-species-of-wild-cat-discovered-for-first-time-in-more-than-a-century-researcher-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852323\/","title":{"rendered":"New species of wild cat discovered for first time in more than a century, researcher says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have discovered a new species of wild cat for the first time in more than a century, a Bolivian researcher told AFP on Thursday. <\/p>\n

The Tilcayo tiger cat, a small feline with a spotted, leopard-like coat, was identified in the mountainous Yungas region near the capital, La Paz. <\/p>\n

Locals who saw the creature in the Bolivian Andes had mistaken it for an ordinary house cat, said biologist and National Geographic explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who was part of the research team that studied them. <\/p>\n

The nickname “tilcayo” given to the animal by locals inspired its new scientific designation: Leopardus tilcayo.<\/p>\n

\"Leopardus<\/p>\n

A Leopardus tilcayo cat, a newly identified species, is seen at the Senda Verde animal refuge in the Yungas region of Bolivia on Sept. 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

Fernando Faciole \/ National Geographic \/ Handout via Reuters<\/p>\n

Nogales-Ascarrunz lauded the discovery as a “remarkable event, because a new wild cat species hasn’t been described in 100 years.” <\/p>\n

The cat is the first feline discovered since the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923. <\/p>\n

The tilcayo is slightly smaller than a domestic cat, measuring around 18 inches, with rounded ears. <\/p>\n

A pair of tilcayos — the only such creatures found so far — have undergone whole genome sequencing, Nogales-Ascarrunz said, referring to a type of in-depth genetic testing.<\/p>\n

\"National<\/p>\n

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 Bolivia on Sept. 1, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fernando Faciole \/ National Geographic \/ Handout via Reuters<\/p>\n

A male tilcayo is living at an animal shelter in Yungas after it was handed over by a family who had taken it in.<\/p>\n

A female was rescued and released into the wild after being attacked by locals. <\/p>\n

Research on the species was published on Thursday in the journal<\/a> Current Biology, capping off research that scientists began in 2021. <\/p>\n

“So far, it’s only been detected in Bolivia” and not “anywhere else on the planet,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said. <\/p>\n

She said the creatures were classified as vulnerable to extinction, but their small numbers meant they could soon be considered “at much greater risk” of dying out.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

\n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists have discovered a new species of wild cat for the first time in more than a century,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[1067,79,201],"class_list":["post-852323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-cats","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}