What she couldn’t know at the time was that this curious cat had a secret. It would become the first new species of felid (i.e. the cat family) discovered in over 100 years, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology. What’s exciting is the discovery is not a validation of a species proposed in the distant past, nor a previously recognized subspecies raised to species status—which are both more commonly reported and important findings. No, this cat was something totally new to science.
At the time though, Nogales-Ascarrunz assumed the unusual cat was a member of the species Leopard tiger. Sometimes called tigrinas, oncillas, tigrillos, or little spotted cats, this species was described back in 1775 from a single illustration of an animal seen in French Guiana and was subsequently presumed to exist across Central and South America, including, at the time, Bolivia.
Fernando Faciole, National Geographic Society
But then in 2019, while she was preparing a booklet about Bolivia’s cat species, she realized the cat she’d photographed didn’t look like a guidebook reference photo from neighboring Brazil. Her tiger cat had rosettes that were much larger than the ones across the border. “This is so wrong,” she thought.
It would take another few years before Nogales-Ascarrunz developed her skills in genetic analysis to the point where she could investigate the mystery cat’s genome with any accuracy. Then, working with Eduardo Eizirik, a geneticist at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart from the University of Antwerp, the team was able to find its distinct place on the cat family tree.
In their paper, the researchers propose the cat should be known as Leopardus tilcayoin honor of the word local people know it by. “We asked the local people, ‘Why do you call it Tilcayo?’” says Nogales-Ascarrunz, who is herself from Bolivia. “And they said, ‘I don’t know! My grandpa called it Tilcayoso I call it Tilcayo.” (The name does not appear to mean anything particular in Spanish or the Quechua language spoken in Bolivia.)