How new is the first ‘new-to-science’ cat discovered in more than 100 years?

Researchers have formally described the tilcayo, a small spotted cat from Bolivia's Yungas cloud forests, marking the first new living cat species named in more than a century. The animal weighs about 1.4 kilograms and was long lumped in with other South American tiger cats under a single species name until genetic testing showed otherwise.

The breakthrough came from a pet cat named Tigrino, rescued as a kitten by a Bolivian family who suspected something was off when it started stalking the neighbors' chickens. Genetic analysis of Tigrino and one wild hair sample showed the lineage split off from other tiger cats roughly 1.4 million years ago, far earlier than researchers expected.

The species name honors the name locals already used for the animal, according to National Geographic explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who co-authored the study. The last previously described living cat species was the Uruguayan pampas cat, named in 1923.

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