Curiosity Found a Cat!
© Fernando Faciole—National Geographic/Reuters
The tilcayo is a small, newly discovered wild cat.
In Bolivia’s cloud forests walks a small, mysterious cat that, until now, has kept its identity hidden from the world. Called tilcayo, this animal is not only a new species of wild cat but also the first to be discovered in more than a century.
Like some of its feline relatives, the tilcayo has black and brown spots, called rosettes, on light brown fur. The adult tilcayo, which weighs about three or four pounds, is smaller than the typical house cat.
The tilcayo’s discovery was almost accidental. As the story goes, a local man found what he thought was a lost kitten along a forest road. He raised it in his home until he realized it was not a domestic cat at all, but likely a wild animal. According to National Geographic, the man gave the cat to an animal sanctuary, who then called biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz about the arrival of a “weird cat.”
© Fernando Faciole—National Geographic/Reuters
Biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz observes a tilcayo that lives at the Senda Verde animal refuge in Bolivia.
After photographing the cat, Nogales-Ascarrunz spent years trying to figure out its identity. She realized the cat’s features didn’t match those of other wild cats in Central or South America. Working with experts around the world, she finally proved that tilcayo had not been scientifically documented before and was therefore brand new to the cat family tree. The last feline to be scientifically identified was the pampas cat in 1923, also from South America.
While the mystery of the tilcayo’s identity is solved, many more remain. Biologists still do not know what tilcayo eats in the wild or how it reproduces. This mission puts a new emphasis on protecting the elusive tilcayo’s habitat, which may even be home to other undiscovered species.
“Even in the cats, there are things out there that are undescribed, things that people haven’t found yet,” said Nogales-Ascarrunz in an interview with National Geographic. “So let’s go out and find them and protect them.”
