Genome sequencing names Bolivia's tilcayo, the first new living cat species since 1923
Leopardus tilcayo of the Bolivian Yungas was counted inside Leopardus tigrinus until 38 sequenced genomes separated it. The living animal itself is known from two individuals, one of them a captive male.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- A study published on Thursday, Sept. 17 in Current Biology sequenced complete genomes from 38 Leopardus cats collected in South and Central America, eight of them taken from museum specimens.
- The authors conclude that tiger cats are five distinct species, confirming four names already proposed and adding one new one, Leopardus tilcayo, along with a new subspecies, L. tigrinus antisuyo.
- L. tilcayo is the first new living cat species described in over a century, the last being the Uruguayan pampas cat, Leopardus fasciatus, in 1923.
Why it matters
- What it limits constraint Range maps and population counts for these cats now require genetic sampling, because a small spotted cat seen on an Andean slope cannot be sorted into one of five near-identical species by eye.
- Who has to decide decision Whoever redoes the L. tigrinus assessment has to do it on the animals left after Bolivia's are removed, and those are the ones the study describes as having had limited genetic data all along.
- Who's exposed exposure L. tilcayo enters the conservation queue with a formal name and a living record of two animals, so the first protection argument for its Bolivian forests has to be made without a population figure.
- What's now possible capability Old collections can settle questions field observation cannot: teeth, bones, skin and fur from eight countries carried enough signal to support a species description without new captures.
Next story · Science · yesterday
Of 774 assessable reef-building corals, 340 qualify as threatened under IUCN criteriaConfirmed2 publishers
The species claim rests on 26 tiger cat genomes taken from across the animals' known range, part of a set of 38 complete Leopardus genomes analysed by Eduardo Eizirik of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and his colleagues [3]. The other 12 genomes came from Leopardus species that are not tiger cats [13]. Eight of the 38 samples were museum material, and the team worked from teeth, bones, muscle tissue, skin and fur collected in Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela [1][2]. On that comparison the cats of the Bolivian Yungas, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, fall outside the lineage holding L. tigrinus and L. pardinoides, which they left nearly 1.4 million years ago [5][6].
The morphological record is much thinner. The description of L. tilcayo, named for the local word for the animal, rests on two live cats in Bolivia: one caught and photographed in the wild, and one in captivity [20][19]. The captive male, Tigrino, is the type specimen for the whole species, and he arrived about 10 years ago at Senda Verde, a Bolivian refuge for trafficked wildlife [8]. "It didn't look like the other [cats]," said Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a biologist at the refuge and a co-author of the study, "but we didn't expect a new species itself" [9]. Head and body run about 42 to 50 centimetres, and the cat weighs 1.5 to 2 kilograms [10].
For anyone who has to count these animals, the thin morphology is the working problem. "The five tiger cat species are all cryptic species. They're morphologically very similar," Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp, a member of the team, told New Scientist [11]. Live Science reports they can be told apart only by genetic analysis or small differences in markings [12]. That means a sighting cannot be assigned to one of the five without a genetic sample [26].
The conservation record has not caught up. The IUCN Red List classes L. tigrinus as vulnerable [14]. The Bolivian cats sat inside L. tigrinus when that assessment was made, so it covered animals the genomes now place in a species of their own [17][25]. Eizirik says the new species and the new subspecies will have to be evaluated and protected as distinct units, and that the forests they live in are shrinking as agriculture expands [15]. The Peruvian animals, L. tigrinus antisuyo, remain inside L. tigrinus as a subspecies; only the Bolivian population leaves the species [18][4].
Tiger cats were first described in French Guiana in 1775, and twentieth-century taxonomists folded the regional names into the single species L. tigrinus [21]. Genomic work has been unpicking that since 2013, when tiger cats were split into a northern and a southern species, followed by L. emiliae in 2017 and L. pardinoides in 2024 [22]. Three revisions in eleven years [27]. Genetic data on L. tigrinus itself stayed limited through all of it [23]. Fabio Oliveira do Nascimento, a taxonomist at the Museum of Zoology of the University of Sao Paulo who was not involved in the work, told Live Science that the tiger cat family tree has been "highly contentious and poorly understood" [24].
What to watch
- A revised IUCN assessment for L. tigrinus computed with the Bolivian animals removed, plus a first assessment for L. tilcayo.
- Further Leopardus genomes from populations isolated by Andean mountains and rivers, where Leslie Lyons expects more species.
- Genetic sampling that maps where L. tilcayo and L. tigrinus actually meet along the Andean slopes.
Clarity's read
What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.
Reality
- Evidence74
- Adoption
- Not scored
- Hype gap+10
- Incentives30
- Confidence72
Perspective Coverage
5 publishers- Builder
- Builder 43%
- Operator
- Operator 52%
- Investor
- Investor 5%
Claim ledger
Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.
- [1]
A study published on Thursday, Sept. 17 in Current Biology sequenced and analyzed the complete genomes of 38 cat samples from South and Central America, including eight from museum specimens.
- [2]
The researchers examined teeth, bones, muscle tissue, skin and fur from cats across Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela.
- [3]
Eduardo Eizirik at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and his colleagues analysed the complete genomes of 38 individuals from the Leopardus genus, including 26 tiger cats from across their known range.
- [4]
The team concluded that the group referred to collectively as tiger cats comprises five distinct species, verifying four previously proposed (L. guttulus, L. emiliae, L. pardinoides and L. tigrinus) and naming one new species, L. tilcayo; it also identified one new subspecies of L. tigrinus, L. tigrinus antisuyo.
- [5]
The genomics revealed a fifth distinct species living in the Bolivian Yungas forests on the east slopes of the Andes mountains.
- [6]
The genomes revealed that L. tilcayo diverged from the lineage containing L. tigrinus and L. pardinoides nearly 1.4 million years ago.
- [7]
L. tilcayo is the first novel living cat species to be discovered in over a century, since the Uruguayan pampas cat (Leopardus fasciatus) was described in 1923.
- [8]
The male L. tilcayo in captivity, nicknamed Tigrino, is the species' type specimen, the reference individual for the whole species; he lives at Senda Verde, a Bolivian refuge for trafficked wildlife, and arrived about 10 years ago.
- [9]
"It didn't look like the other [cats]," Nogales-Ascarrunz said, "but we didn't expect a new species itself."
- [10]
L. tilcayo has a combined head and body length of between about 42 and 50 centimetres and weighs between 1.5 and 2 kilograms.
- [11]
"The five tiger cat species are all cryptic species. They're morphologically very similar."
- [12]
Tiger cat species look very similar and are distinguishable only by genetic analysis or small differences in markings.
- [13]
Twelve of the 38 sequenced Leopardus genomes came from animals that were not tiger cats.
- [14]
L. tigrinus is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.
- [15]
Eizirik says the new species and subspecies will have to be evaluated and protected as distinct units, especially as the forests they live in are shrinking as agriculture expands.
- [16]
Because L. tilcayo is a new species, scientists do not know much about its behaviour, diet or range; the next steps are to get more accurate numbers of their populations and estimates of their ranges, Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
- [17]
L. tilcayo was previously thought to be a northern tiger cat, Leopardus tigrinus.
- [18]
In the Peruvian Yungas forests, on the west side of the Andes, the researchers found a distinct group of cats in the L. tigrinus lineage that they describe as a novel subspecies, L. tigrinus antisuyo.
- [19]
The name L. tilcayo refers to what locals call the cat, "tilcayo."
- [20]
Descriptions of L. tilcayo are based on only two live individuals in Bolivia: one specimen caught and photographed in the wild, and another living in captivity.
- [21]
The tiger cat was first described in 1775 in French Guiana, and in the 20th century taxonomists began lumping all tiger cats together into one species, L. tigrinus.
- [22]
In 2013 scientists split tiger cats into two species, L. tigrinus (northern) and Leopardus guttulus (southern); Leopardus emiliae was proposed as a separate species in 2017, and the clouded tiger cat, Leopardus pardinoides, split off in 2024.
- [23]
There were limited genetic data on L. tigrinus.
- [24]
The tiger cat's family tree has been "highly contentious and poorly understood."
- [25]
The IUCN's vulnerable listing for L. tigrinus was applied to a group that included the Bolivian animals now named as the separate species L. tilcayo.
- [26]
Because the five tiger cat species can be separated only by genetic analysis or small differences in markings, a record made by sight cannot be assigned to one of the five without a genetic sample.
- [27]
The 2013, 2017 and 2024 changes amount to three species-level revisions in eleven years.
- [28]
Leslie Lyons at the University of California, Davis, says there are so many barriers in South America that can geographically isolate animal populations, including mountains and rivers, that more cat species may be waiting to be found.
Sources
5 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- discovermagazine.comCub Found in Bolivia Helped Uncover the First New Cat Species Named in Over a Century
1 article · September 18, 2026
- livescience.comScientists name a new cat species for the first time in over a century
1 article · September 17, 2026
- newscientist.comBeautiful new cat species is first to be named in a century
2 articles · September 21, 2026
- phys.orgBolivia's tilcayo tiger cat becomes first new wildcat species in 100 years
3 articles · September 21, 2026
- scientificamerican.comSee the first new species of cat discovered in more than a century—it’s adorable
1 article · September 17, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Conservation genomics
- Wildlife conservation
- Species taxonomy
Entities
- Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz
- University of Antwerp
- Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul
- Leopardus tilcayo
- Current Biology
- Leopardus tigrinus
- IUCN Red List