An international team of researchers has described the first new wild cat species in more than a hundred years, published in Current Biology on September 24, 2026. The tiny feline, nicknamed “Tigrino” and scientifically named Leopardus tilcayo, weighs only 1.4 kg with a body length of about 46 cm — smaller than an average house cat. It inhabits the Yungas cloud forests of Bolivia, on the Andean slopes descending toward the Amazon basin.
The discovery came after scientists sequenced the full genomes of 38 tiger cat specimens — 30 modern animals and 8 museum samples. The analysis revealed that what was previously considered a single species of tiger cat is in fact five distinct species, each adapted to its own ecological niche. The tiger cat lineages diverged over 2.3 million years ago, following the Great American Biotic Interchange when a land bridge formed between North and South America. A new subspecies from Peru, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo, was also described.
The finding has major conservation implications: what appeared to be one relatively stable species actually hides a group of distinct, often rare cats, each requiring separate protection strategies. Tigrino himself now serves as a conservation “ambassador” at the Senda Verde sanctuary in Bolivia.
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