CAT’S OUT

New Animal Species Identified for the First Time in a Century

The newly discovered tiger cat is native to Bolivia.

Researchers say they’ve discovered a new wild cat species, previously unknown to science. The cat, named Leopardus tilcayo, is smaller than the average house cat, is slender, spotted and has rounded ears. The new species, which was first announced in the journal Current Biology on Thursday, is native to the Bolivian Yungas, the cloud forest where the Andes Mountains intersect with the Amazon basin. “This time, it’s a cat. That’s really novel. And it hasn’t happened in 100 years,” said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who co-authored the study and leads a wild cat conservation program in Bolivia. “No one else had named it. No one else had described it.” She says it’s rare to identify a new, relatively large mammal. Compared to some other animals, Leopardus tilcayo may be big, but Nogales-Ascarrunz says she was initially struck by its small size. “I saw this cat. It was really, really small, and I couldn’t believe how small it was,” she said. “I thought it was a kitten.”