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Leopardus tilcayo, known locally as the tilcayo cat, is a newly described wild cat reported from Bolivia’s Yungas forest. Researchers identified it after a sanctuary animal’s distinctive coat prompted closer examination and genomic analysis separated it from other tiger cats. Its full range and the number living in the wild remain unknown.
What is the tilcayo cat?
The tilcayo cat is a wild feline assigned the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo. It was reported from Bolivia’s Yungas forest ecoregion, on the eastern slope of the Andes. National Geographic’s 2026 account describes it as the first newly described living cat species since the pampas cat in 1923—and distinguishes it from a species that was already recognized as a subspecies and simply promoted to species rank.
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How was the new cat species identified?
A distinctive animal raised questions
The cat was found as a kitten near a forest road and kept by a local family for about a year before it was taken to Senda Verde wildlife sanctuary. Nogales-Ascarrunz heard about the animal and investigated. While preparing a guide to Bolivia’s cats in 2019, she noticed that its rosettes differed from reference images of neighboring tiger cats.
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Genomic evidence distinguished it
The unusual coat was a clue, not the basis for the species identification on its own. National Geographic reports that the team compared complete genomes from 38 individual cats across the Leopardus genus. The reported genomic analysis placed L. tilcayo apart from the other tiger-cat species and estimated that it diverged from its closest relatives around 1.4 million years ago. That figure is an estimate from genomic analysis, not a directly observed event.
The same reported study also provides evidence for a Peruvian tiger-cat subspecies, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo, and contributes to a revised view of tiger cats as a species complex. These findings are attributed here to National Geographic’s account of the study; the underlying paper’s detailed methods and nomenclatural treatment are not independently established in that reporting.
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Where does it live, and what is known about it?
The reports place the species in Bolivia’s Yungas forest ecoregion. They do not establish its full wild range. ABC News gives approximate measurements of about 18 inches long and no more than 3 pounds; these are reported estimates, not a comprehensive description of variation across a known population.
Many basic aspects of its ecology are still unknown. National Geographic quotes Nogales-Ascarrunz saying, “So many basic things are not known.” The reports do not establish the cat’s diet, predators, reproductive behavior, or abundance in the wild. Because coverage differs on how many animals are known, there is no reliable population count to report.
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Why does the discovery matter for conservation?
Recognizing a distinct species can change how scientists assess its distribution and conservation needs: a narrower range or smaller population may warrant attention that was obscured when cats were grouped more broadly. But the available reports do not provide a measured population trend or a formal IUCN conservation category for L. tilcayo.
ABC News quotes Nogales-Ascarrunz describing habitat pressure in the Yungas: “Currently, this ecosystem is threatened by deforestation, especially with wildfires. When they are not controlled … they start destroying this ecosystem”. That supports concern about threats to the habitat, but does not demonstrate a species-specific decline.
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James Sanderson, founder and director of the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation and an IUCN Cat Specialist Group member—not a study author—summed up the implications of revised classifications: “Once three species become five species, each population is reduced.” He added, “Therefore conservation efforts must increase, perhaps urgently, depending on estimated population sizes.” The qualification matters: the urgency for this cat depends on population estimates that have not been established in the reports.
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What remains unanswered
- Wild range: The reports identify the Yungas but do not map the species’ full distribution.
- Population: No reliable estimate of the number living in the wild is provided.
- Ecology: Diet, predators, reproduction, and other basic behavioral details remain open questions.
- Conservation status: The reports do not establish an IUCN category for the species.
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