Researchers have identified a new species of wild cat in the humid, misty Yungas forests of Bolivia, and per tovima.com it marks the first official identification of a new living feline species in more than a century.

Known locally as the tilcayo, the small feline belongs to the tigrillos, a group of small wild cats found across South America. Genetic analysis confirmed it as a distinct species, which scientists named *Leopardus tilcayo*, retaining the local name.

The discovery gained wider attention when National Geographic highlighted that the trail began with a call from a wildlife sanctuary reporting a "weird cat" in the Yungas ecoregion.

The surprise is that tilcayo specimens were presumably seen for years without anyone realizing they were a separate species.

According to tovima.com, tigrillos were long considered a single species, but modern genetic analysis revealed several distinct lineages that cannot easily be told apart by appearance alone.

It is the same pattern reshaping mammal taxonomy worldwide: the feed's earlier museum-drawers bandicoot study, published in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy, likewise showed that hundreds of historical and modern specimens could hide new species and subspecies within familiar-looking animals.

Genetics, not field sightings, is now the decisive tool for splitting cryptic species.

Per tovima.com, the research team analyzed DNA from 38 wild cats across several South American countries, including eight museum specimens, and concluded that tigrillos actually comprise five distinct genetic species.

The tilcayo lineage separated from the other tigrillos roughly 1.4 million years ago. The cat itself is smaller than a domestic cat: tovima.com reports it measures about 46 centimeters in length, weighs just 1.4 kilograms, and has light brown fur with distinctive rosette-shaped markings.

Fecal sample analysis found remains of small rodents, and camera recordings suggest the animal may be primarily nocturnal.

The timing is sobering.

tovima.com notes the discovery comes as the Yungas forests face increasing pressure from deforestation, agricultural expansion, wildfires and mining, and that the International Union for Conservation of Nature already classifies tigrillos within threatened categories while populations decline.

Scientists still know very little about the tilcayo's behavior and biology, so fieldwork to establish its range, population and habitat needs is the obvious next step. Naming a species, in short, is only the beginning of protecting it.