Researchers have formally described a small spotted wild cat from Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest as a new species, Leopardus tilcayo, known locally as the tilcayo cat.

The animal belongs to the broader 'tiger cat' group and is smaller than a typical house cat, at roughly three pounds and about 18 inches long, with light-brown fur and irregular spots that make it look like a miniature leopard.

According to ABC News, the species is native to Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest and the finding was published in Current Biology. Researchers say it is the first living feline species identified by scientists in over a century.

Cats are among the world's best-studied groups of mammals, which makes a brand-new species startling.

The trail began in 2017, when a Bolivian family kept a strange-looking spotted 'kitten' as a pet before realizing it was wild and turning it over to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary, according to reporting by ABC News and The Herald Insight.

Biologist Paola Nogales Ascarrunz, a National Geographic Explorer and co-author of the study, said its scrunched face, small round ears and long whiskers did not match reference photos of known tiger cats. The elusive cats had long been misclassified as lookalikes such as oncillas and margays.

The decisive proof came from genetics rather than appearance.

That comparison showed the tilcayo lineage separated from its closest relatives roughly 1.4 million years ago — a fact both ABC News and The Herald Insight report — confirming it was not merely a variation of a recognized species and also revealing another new subspecies within the tiger cats.

The tilcayo is not the only long-hidden animal to surface in the current run of discoveries.

bioengineer.org reports that herpetologists described a new snake species, Colubroelaps adleri or Adler's lace snake, from a single female specimen collected on Hon Tre Island in Vietnam's Nha Trang Bay — only the second known species of a genus unnoticed for over a century of herpetological exploration.

Like the tilcayo, it was nearly invisible to science because of a cryptic lifestyle, and the researchers recommend it be classified as Endangered. Both finds show that supposedly well-studied groups can still hold unrecognized species.

Splitting one widespread 'tiger cat' into smaller species changes the conservation math: populations once counted together may be far smaller and more vulnerable, and some are now considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, according to ABC News.

The tilcayo's Yungas habitat faces deforestation, wildfires and mining pressure, and its cloud forest ecosystem is threatened by uncontrolled fires, Nogales Ascarrunz explained.

Much remains unknown — population size, behavior and range rest on few living animals and camera-trap records — but she said worldwide attention gives conservation 'one more reason to conserve this beautiful world.'