The spotted cat from the forests of Bolivia has been officially recognised as a new species.
This predator, which is about the size of an ordinary domestic cat, went unnoticed for a long time. It was mistaken for other wild cats with similar spots and stripes.
However, DNA analysis has proved that it is a unique species. This case clearly illustrates just how little we still know about some of the planet’s mammals.
Scientists hope that the discovery will draw attention to the conservation of tiger cats — a group of small wild cats from South and Central America that receive far less attention than their larger relatives such as lions, leopards or tigers.
Photo credit: Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz / Julie Van Collie
Tiger cats are small, spotted wild cats found in Central and South America: from Costa Rica to Bolivia and Argentina.
“This is an amazing result – we have a species new to science, namely Leopardus tilcayo,” said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz of the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia.
“It’s incredible that there are still new species out there waiting to be discovered. And we don’t need to venture into a volcano, to a remote island or into the depths of the ocean to find them.”
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At present, only one confirmed specimen of this species is known — a cat living in an animal shelter in Bolivia — but scientists are convinced that others exist.
It was this 10-year-old cat, nicknamed Tigrino, who led the scientists to the discovery. Bolivian researcher Dr Nogales-Ascarruhns was working at the shelter as a volunteer when she noticed that the animal looked unusual.
A local resident had found it in the forest and initially mistook it for an ordinary domestic kitten. However, as it grew, it became clear that the cat was behaving quite unlike a domestic pet.
Dr Nogales-Ascarruens had heard of other sightings of the small wild Guangas cats in the forests of this Bolivian region, but scientists had not studied them.
To unravel the mystery, she joined forces with other researchers around the world. Together, they studied the pedigree of the tiger cats, using DNA from living animals and museum specimens.
“There are few records and photographs, so this cat was simply hiding from us because nobody was looking for it,” noted Eduardo Eizirique, a conservation geneticist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil.
The study, published in the journal *Current Biology*, has revealed some unexpected findings. It suggests that there are five, rather than three, species of tiger cats, including the recently described Tilcayo cat (Leopardus tilcayo) from Bolivia.
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However, identifying a new species is only the first step.
Study co-author Dr Caroline Sartor from the Department of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Oxford noted that this discovery is of great importance for nature conservation, as it is impossible to protect a species if we do not know what it is or where it lives.
‘These animals are about the size of an ordinary domestic cat, so one might assume that by now we would already know of all of them. However, this discovery shows just how much biodiversity still awaits discovery in the less-explored corners of the world,” she emphasised.
Tiger cat species are considered vulnerable due to deforestation, habitat loss and poaching, although the new species is not yet included in preliminary assessments of its conservation status.
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This discovery may also have wider implications for the entire cat family.
Both wild and domestic cats belong to the biological family Felidae, which encompasses every existing species — from tiny pets to giant tigers.
There are 41 officially recognised species, but this new discovery – and the suggestion that several new species of tiger cat may exist – brings the total to 44 or even more.
Andrew Kitchener, a mammal expert at National Museums of Scotland who was not involved in this study, notes that these small, spotted South American cats, known as tiger cats, have long been a real ‘taxonomic nightmare’.
“These cats confuse scientists because they look very similar, and there are only a handful of specimens in museum collections. That is why, even now, we are still learning to distinguish between them, as genetics is revealing new species,” he explained.