Meet the Adorable and Tiny Tilcayo, the First Brand-New Cat Species Identified in More Than a Century

For the first time in more than 100 years, scientists have identified a new species of wild cat. The diminutive feline, dubbed the tilcayo, lives in the Bolivian Yungas, the cloud forest where the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains meet the Amazon basin. It’s smaller than a house cat, weighing just three to four pounds, and has large, irregularly shaped rosettes dotting its light brown fur.

Scientists say the creature, which they describe in a study published September 17 in the journal Current Biology, is a reminder that the natural world still holds plenty of mysteries. Thinking it was a domestic kitten, the man took the creature home and started feeding it noodles, rice and eggs. After about a year, however, he realized the animal was probably wild.

He took it to the nonprofit Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary. That’s where Nogales-Ascarrunz first encountered the mysterious animal, a male nicknamed Tigrino that had rounded ears, a small face and big, leopard-like spots. At first, she thought the creature might be a northern tiger cat, also called the oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus).

But that identification didn’t seem quite right—the cat itself was too small, its rosettes were too large and its tail seemed different. Genetic testing confirmed her hunch: The unusual cat belonged to its own separate species, one that was previously unknown to science. Researchers named the creature L. tilcayo because tilcayo is what local people call it—though the origins of that name remain unclear.

We want to preserve that knowledge, and we didn’t want to give it another name.” Because the cats are so small and elusive, scientists know very little about L. tilcayo, including its diet, lifestyle and behaviors. Researchers also don’t know how many tilcayo exist in the wild. However, scat samples suggest the cats might eat small rodents, and wildlife camera footage hints that they could be nocturnal, per ’ Marta Serafinko.

A genetic analysis of 38 individuals from the Leopardus genus—a group colloquially called tiger cats—revealed that L. tilcayo split off from the lineage roughly 1.4 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene, a period of substantial climate fluctuation. As glaciers advanced and retreated, tropical forest lowlands became dry savannas, the researchers write in the paper. Montane forests, meanwhile, held onto their humidity, acting as “climatic refugia” for cloud forest species.