New Delhi: A new cat species has been identified for the first time in a century from Bolivia’s cloud forests on Thursday. The cat, which had been identified as a previously unknown species, is part of a group called tiger cats found across South America.
The new species, called ‘Tilcayo’ by locals, has light brown fur with irregularly shaped rosettes across its body, researchers who identified the feline said. It has been given the scientific name Leopardus tilcayo.
The cat was found in Bolivia’s lush Yungas forest, a mountainous region where forests are frequently covered by clouds and surrounded by high humidity. It is around 18 inches long and weighs about 1.4 kg, making it smaller than the average domestic cat.
The cat initially drew interest because “its characteristics did not match the descriptions, most of them based on Brazilian cats”, researchers said.
“This made us wonder, what tiger cat do we actually have in Bolivia?” Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic Explorer and one of the authors of the study, told Al Jazeera.
Evolutionary biologist and study co-lead author Jonas Lescroart also told Al Jazeera that tiger cats are so-called ‘cryptic species,’ because they cannot usually be distinguished only by appearance.
DNA from 38 cats across several South American countries were analysed, including eight museum specimens. The study found that tiger cats are five genetically distinct species and the tilcayo species separated from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.
“We never expected this Bolivian tiger cat to be a separate species, and no one had ever proposed it as a different animal, subspecies or otherwise,” Lescroart said.
(Edited by Stela Dey)