Bolivia: New species of wild cat discovered for the first time in over a century

A group of scientists discovered a new species of wild cat for the first time in more than a century, while observing in the warm valleys of the Andes in Bolivia, which some locals had mistaken for common cats, researcher Paola Nogales told AFP on Thursday.

With a mottled coat and measuring about 18 inches long, the small animal was identified in the mountainous region of Los Yungas, about 55 miles northeast of La Paz. It was named "tilcayo" by the locals, a name that inspired its new scientific name: "leopardus tilcayo."

It is a "remarkable achievement, because no wild cat has been discovered anywhere in the world in the last 100 years," Nogales, an Bolivian scientist and explorer, told National Geographic.

It is the first new feline species discovered since the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923.

The tilcayo "is slightly smaller than a domestic cat"

The tilcayo "is slightly smaller than a domestic cat, has rounded ears," and a mottled coat, she noted, which led locals to mistake it for an ordinary house cat.

So far, a pair of tilcayos has been found, and they underwent "whole-genome sequencing"—that is, in-depth genetic testing.

A male was adopted by a family that, upon noticing his unusual behavior, turned him over to an animal conservation shelter in Los Yungas, where he remains to this day. A female that was attacked in a community was rescued and later released into the wild.