This ‘strange cat’ has amazed scientists – it’s a new species discovered after 100 years | Today’s news
A wildlife sanctuary’s call about a “strange cat” in Bolivia eventually led scientists to identify the first new cat species discovered in more than 100 years. The animal was proposed as a new species named Leopardus tilcayo. The discovery was detailed in a study published in the journal Current Biology.
The animal, which was originally mistaken for a known species of tiger cat, was later found by genetic analysis to have a different place in the cat family tree.
How a ‘strange cat’ sparked a discovery
According to a National Geographic report, in 2016 Bolivian biologist and National Geographic researcher Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz received a call from a local nature reserve about an unusual animal. A man found a kitten on a road near a forest and took it home, thinking it was a domestic cat. About a year later, he realized the animal was wild and would be better off in a sanctuary.
Nogales-Ascarrunz, founder and chief scientist of the Bolivian Felids Research Program, visited the Senda Verde Nature Reserve on the eastern flank of the Bolivian Andes.
The small animal had a prominent face, short rounded ears, long whiskers and leopard spots.
“I took a hundred photos,” Nogales-Ascarrunz recalled, according to National Geographic. “I was so fascinated.
A clue hidden in her spots
Nogales-Ascarrunz first believed that the animal belonged to Leopardus tigrinus, commonly known as the tiger cat, tigrina, or oncilla. The species was described in 1775 and was believed to be found in parts of Central and South America, including Bolivia.
But in 2019, while preparing a brochure on Bolivian cat species, she noticed something unusual. The cat she photographed had much larger rosettes than those shown in reference photos of tiger cats from neighboring Brazil.
This is so wrong, she thought.
The mystery remained unsolved for several years until Nogales-Ascarrunz developed the genetic knowledge needed to study the animal’s genome.
DNA reveals a species new to science
Working with geneticist Eduardo Eizirik of Brazil’s Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and University of Antwerp researcher Jonas Lescroart, Nogales-Ascarrunz helped demonstrate that the animal was genetically distinct from other tiger cats.
Scientists propose the name Leopardus tilcayo based on the local name used for the animal.
Genomic analysis of 38 individuals from across the genus Leopardus showed that L. tilcayo diverged from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.
First new cat since 1923
According to National Geographic, L. tilcayo is the first newly discovered cat species since the pampas cat in 1923.
The findings also change scientists’ understanding of tiger cats. What was once thought to be a single species is now recognized as a complex containing five species.
The newly identified cat is known to inhabit Bolivia’s Yungas forest ecoregion, but scientists still don’t know how many survive in the wild, what they eat or how they reproduce.
The discovery could also have important conservation implications. When several genetically distinct species are grouped together, their individual populations can appear safer than they actually are.
“Our world is extremely complex,” Nogales-Ascarrunz said. “Even in cats there are things that are indescribable.
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