New Cat Species Discovered

A previously unknown species of cat has been discovered in the mountainous forests of Bolivia for the first time since 1923.

The animal, locally known as tilcayo, belongs to the group of leopard cats that inhabit a large part of South America. It was discovered in 2016 by a local resident in a protected area of the Yungas forest, who kept it after assuming it was a lost domestic cat.

Only several years later did scientists determine that it represented a species previously unknown to science. Researchers used genetic data to confirm that the cat belonged to a new species. It was named Leopardus tilcayo.

The animal measures 46 centimeters in length and weighs approximately 1.4 kilograms. The information was reported by the “National Geographic” website.