New cat species discovered in Bolivia after century
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In Bolivia, local people first noticed a unique wild cat resembling a cross between a leopard and a kitten, and they shared information with animal welfare authorities.
A man found a young cat by a road and tried to raise it as a pet for over a year, but he realized it remained wild and turned it over to a wildlife sanctuary. Biologists could not place the cat within known species, so Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz studied its DNA.
Nogales-Ascarrunz determined the cat represented a previously unknown species. Locals had already given the cat a name, tilcayo, passed down through generations. The discovery marks the first new cat species identified in over 100 years, and researchers have not yet found specimens of the species in any museum collection.
