Tiger cat named 1st new feline species in century

What happened

A team of biologists Thursday said they have identified the first new living feline species in more than 100 years: a small spotted tiger cat that lives in Bolivia’s cloud forests. Genetic testing confirmed that Leopardus tilcayo is a new member of the cat family, the researchers reported in the journal Current Biology.

Weighing about 5 pounds, the cat resembles a “leopard that shrank to the size of a house kitten,” The Washington Post said.

Who said what

“Little is yet known about the cat’s biology and lifestyle,” Reuters said, and it’s unclear how many there are. “Our information at this moment is limited to the two live individuals that we examined, and a small number of camera-trap records,” said study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart of Belgium’s University of Antwerp. The “discovery is monumental, and not just because it’s the first new cat discovered since the pampas cat in 1923,” said National Geographic. The genomic analysis “redraws the cat family tree to have a lot more branches than previously thought.

What next?

“Showing the general public” there are still new species of a “flagship group such as cats,” said study co-author Eduardo Eizirik, transmits the “important message” that unless we preserve endangered habitats, the “many undiscovered species” are “at risk of disappearing before we even discover them.”