News: A new wild cat species, Tilcayo, has been identified in Bolivia’s Yungas ecoregion, marking the first new living feline species described in over a century.

Key Features

• Endemic: Bolivia’s Yungas ecoregion, a mountainous transition zone between the Andes and Amazon Basin.
• Habitat: Hyper-humid cloud forests with steep terrain, mist and dense vegetation.
• Taxonomy: An independent tiger-cat species; its lineage diverged from Leopardus tigrinus about 1.4 million years ago.
• Behaviour: Predominantly nocturnal.
• Diet: Mainly small rodents.
• Significance: The discovery indicates that the South American tiger-cat complex comprises at least five genetically distinct lineages.