Within a day of scientists formally describing the tilcayo (*Leopardus tilcayo*) as the first newly identified wild cat species in more than a century, EL PAÍS reports that the threat to its Bolivian home has grown acute.

A landslide caused by soil removal from gold mining has opened a crater at the very entrance to the Senda Verde Wildlife Refuge in Coroico, in Bolivia's Yungas region — the sanctuary that cares for Tigrino, the specimen that led scientists to recognize the new species.

Heavy machinery operating along the banks of the Coroico River is visible from the refuge, and EL PAÍS also observed about 20 gold prospectors known locally as *barranquilleros* working on the riverbank less than 100 meters from the refuge's rewilding area.

The scale of the gold rush in the Yungas is striking.

According to a 2025 survey by Bolivia's Administrative Mining Jurisdiction Authority (AJAM) cited by EL PAÍS, the municipality of Coroico has around 16 mining areas authorized to operate and another 129 awaiting approval or under review — and AJAM carries out frequent inspections because many of those 129 sites are already operating without completing the regulatory process.

The dominant method is open-pit extraction along riverbanks, with dump trucks, excavators and motor pumps moving earth and gravel.

EL PAÍS reports the effects are visible in felled trees, cleared slopes and riverbank vegetation that has collapsed into the water, muddying rivers and contaminating them with mercury.

The latest push against Senda Verde comes from a mining cooperative claiming rights to an area in a legal gray zone affecting around 30 properties in Coroico, which Bolivia's AJAM classifies as areas with 'pre-existing rights' — concessions granted before the 2014 Mining and Metallurgy Law that must still obtain an environmental license.

EL PAÍS reports tensions escalated until three cooperative members were arrested, and they were released three days later.

The conflict has split the community itself: Río Negro Reserve representative Víctor Álvarez told EL PAÍS that four to six cooperatives threaten 80% of that reserve's 6,200 hectares, even as some residents do small-scale extraction when crops are out of season.

In Coripata, residents challenged the mayor to drink river water, and in La Asunta an attack on a cooperative left several people injured and machinery burned.

The Yungas drama echoes across the continent.

Scientists have identified a striking new fish, *Laimosemion laranja* — an orange killifish under 3 cm long — in ponds in southern Amapá, Brazil, according to Noticias Ambientales, which reports the species lives at only three locations in Laranjal do Jari and that researchers are calling for it to be classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List because its habitat spans just 25 square kilometers.

A study in Zoosystematics and Evolution, as described by Noticias Ambientales, found a 5.3% genetic divergence from its closest relatives, and warns that mining contaminates the water and alters the chemical balances the fish needs.

What comes next is uncertain: communities in the Río Negro Reserve are finalizing a management plan for state protection, while Bolivia's record gold prices and economic crisis keep the pressure rising.