A new wild cat species has been discovered for the first time in 100 years — the tilcayo tiger cat from the Bolivian Yungas.
\n\nOfficially named leopardus tilcayo, the spotted, slender tiger cat boasts the size of a kitten rather than a standard house cat, per NBC News. The exact size of the cat’s population remains unknown. There are as many as five tiger cat species in South America and they face severe conservation challenges due to vanishing habitats.
\n\nPaola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who leads a wild cat conservation program called Programa de Investigación de Félidos Bolivia (Bolivian Felid Research and Conservation Program), called the discovery a “novel” find.
\n\n“This time, it’s a cat. That’s really novel. And it hasn’t happened in 100 years,” she said. “No one else had named it. No one else had described it.”
\n\n“We really don’t know how many cats are still in the wild,” she added. “We need science, we need more studies to answer this question, which is actually critical for its conservation.”
\n\nNogales-Ascarrunz was at first astounded by the cat’s relatively small size upon discovering it. In fact, a man brought it to the wildlife rehabilitation center thinking it was a domestic kitten.
\n\n“I…
Original source: https://www.breitbart.com/latin-america/
