How Can a New Cat Species Hide in Plain Sight?

A small spotted cat found beside a road in Bolivia was taken home by a local family who believed it might be an unusual domestic kitten.

As it grew, its wild behavior became difficult to ignore. The family eventually transferred it to a wildlife sanctuary, where biologist Paola Nogales Ascarrunz encountered it in 2017. She recognized it as a tiger cat, a group of small wild felines found across Central and South America.

Something still looked wrong. Its face was unusually short, its ears were small and rounded, and the rosettes on its coat were larger than those shown in reference photographs of the species it supposedly belonged to.

Researchers eventually compared complete genomes from 38 cats, including living animals and preserved museum specimens. The results revealed that the Bolivian cat belonged to a previously unrecognized lineage that separated from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago.

Scientists named it Leopardus tilcayo, using the name local people had already given the animal for generations.

The discovery also showed that what had once been treated as one widely distributed tiger cat was actually several distinct species. That difference matters. One abundant species may appear secure, while five smaller populations may each be approaching danger unnoticed.

The tilcayo was not hiding because nobody had ever seen it. It remained hidden because everyone who saw it believed it was another kind of cat.