For centuries, the Amazon rainforest has been an elusive habitat filled with incredibly dense foliage. This beautiful habitat is home to 10% of the planet’s known organisms, and even then, millions more are suspected but undiscovered. Even under all these conditions, a landmark discovery occurred just last week. An entirely new genus of wildcat was found where the Amazon Basin and the Bolivian Yungas, a lush stretch of the Andes Mountains, meet.
This new species, described by National Geographic, is now named Leopardus tilcayo, and it’s smaller than a housecat, weighing three pounds and measuring 18 inches. The cat was first seen in 2017, when biologist Paola Nogales Ascarrunz first received a call about a strange feline from a local sanctuary in Bolivia. L. tilcayo, commonly named Tilcayo, is a species in the Leopardus genus. This genus is made up of three subgenera: Leopardus, Lynchailurus, and Oncifelis. Although there have been species that have been more accurately described and moved around within these taxa as recently as 2024, the Tilcayo is its own distinct species, making it the first new feline discovered in over 100 years.
Although the species was first documented almost 10 years ago, only recently was it proven to be a different species. Biologist Ascarrunz, with the help of geneticist Eduardo Eizirik, categorized this elusive feline. Ascarrunz noticed physical differences in the feline in comparison to the other leopards of the Amazon, like its irregular rosettes, longer tail, and more smushed face, but it took modern genetic testing to confirm that it was, in fact, something entirely new.
Genetic testing is the pinnacle of tests for differentiating species; however, it isn’t typically used for felines. Cats in the Panthera genus, large cats like tigers, lions, and jaguars, get much more recognition, and therefore they get classified sooner. Simple differences like a longer tail or unique markings are much easier to spot on larger felines that are already so different from each other. However, Leopardus, or tiger cats, are much smaller and look very similar from species to species. Small differences are much tougher to recognize, and oftentimes get written off as individual differences instead of species differences.
Despite all this, the science journal Current Biology shows how distinct the now six species are from each other. Each of them has its own unmistakable habitat within the Amazon Rainforest, and they rarely overlap. This leads to them evolving incredibly specific traits to best fit their ecological niche. Even though they all live in the Amazon, the Venezuelan north of the forest where Leopardus tigrinus resides is different enough from the Bolivian south region of the forest where the Tilcayo was found that the two felines have entirely different builds. The Tilcayo was named by the Bolivian people who had encountered it before, and the name was so charming that it stuck.
These small differences create extraordinary diversity for felines across the globe. Although this discovery is exciting, the reason it’s been so long since we have discovered a new cat is not just due to their elusive nature. Felines around the world face the consequences of a warming planet and are forced to adapt or die. Most organisms cannot adapt quickly enough in their lifetime, and by the time the species has, it’s already too late for them. The tiger cats of the Amazon face the hardships of both a warming planet and the lumber industry every day. Even though the Amazon is a tropical rainforest where its residents are acclimatized to the warm, humid days, how could an organism ever acclimatize to its home being stripped away from it? The Amazon is still being used to harvest lumber, driving more and more exceptional organisms towards extinction.
This fact isn’t exclusive to Leopardus, nor to the other organisms in the Amazon. Animals all across the globe face the pressures of climate change. Polar bears in the Arctic, fish endemic to every coral reef, tigers in the Himalayas, bears in North America, and even cacti native to the Florida Keys all face the pressure of climate change. There are tens of thousands of species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, and there are probably thousands of other species that we will never discover because of the effects climate change has on their environments. It might seem like we are too far gone, but there are absolutely ways to help. Signing petitions, getting in contact with your local government, and even switching to more eco-friendly options are small ways one individual person can make a change.
It might seem like you yourself cannot make a difference, so why even bother? But imagine how many people out there are also thinking the same thing. If every person who thought “I’m only one person, what difference can I make?” actually took a chance at a more eco-friendly lifestyle, the difference would be incredible. Recycle that bottle, use the glass container, try to reach for less single-use plastic. It will make a difference.