Tiny wild cat newly identified as a species draws visitors in Bolivia
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COROICO, Bolivia (AP) -- A tiny wild cat hidden away in the cloud forests of Bolivia has become an unlikely tourist attraction, drawing a stream of visitors hoping for a glimpse of the animal that scientists have identified as a brand new species.
There is just one problem: Tigrino, as he has been affectionately dubbed, doesn't like the attention.
The small, spotted feline with large, leopardlike spots is easily stressed, so caretakers at the wildlife sanctuary near La Paz keep him out of public view, turning away the crowds eager for a closer look. When The Associated Press visited Sunday, Tigrino cautiously emerged from his shelter, sniffed the air and paced around for a few minutes before slipping back into the foliage.
Tigrino belongs to Leopardus tilcayo, the first living wild cat species described by scientists in more than a century. At just 18 inches (46 centimeters) from head to the base of his tail and 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms), he is smaller than the average house cat.
The discovery published Thursday in the journal Current Biology set off a flurry of excitement on social media. Visitors from across Bolivia and beyond have flocked to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary, where Tigrino has lived since 2017, when a family brought him there after trying unsuccessfully to make a house cat of him.
"Tigrino has become, in just a few days, an ambassador for conservation," said sanctuary co-founder Marcelo Levy, adding that the new species designation has helped raise awareness about the need to protect wild cats and their habitat in Bolivia's tropical forests.
"He's such a tiny animal, and he has become something so important," Levy said.
Bolivian biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, a National Geographic explorer and one of the study's lead authors, said a colleague who thought the cat looked unusual invited her to examine it at the sanctuary in the country's Yungas region, where she volunteered, a couple hours’ drive from the administrative capital of La Paz.
What struck her was the small size of the male cat, now about 10 years old. Its light brown coat is patterned with dark, leopardlike spots.
"Knowing other wild cats, it was peculiar," she said. "He really is tiny."
To locate the cat in South America's feline family tree, researchers compared genomes -- complete sets of genetic instructions -- from more than 30 cats across locations including Colombia, Peru and Brazil. Bones and skins preserved in U.S. and European museums supplied DNA to fill the gaps where fresh samples were unavailable.
The analysis revealed that the sanctuary cat belonged to a previously unrecognized species whose lineage split from its relatives about 1.4 million years ago. The last feline species formally identified was the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923.
"During naturalist expeditions in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, this cat was never collected and the species was never properly described," Nogales-Ascarrunz said.
While some species are named after scientists or explorers, the researchers named this one Leopardus tilcayo, preserving the moniker used by communities in the tropical cloud forests of the Andes Mountains in Bolivia where the animal lives.
"This isn't an animal that nobody had ever seen before. Local communities knew it existed, but until now science had not recognized it as a separate species," Wai-Ming Wong, an expert with the global wild cat conservation group Panthera, stated in an email. Wong had no role in the new research.
The findings helped unravel a longstanding mystery about South America's tiger cats, which scientists once classified as a single species because they look so much alike. The researchers' DNA analysis pointed to at least five distinct species -- four previously named, plus the newly described tilcayo.
"Even in groups that are very well studied, like the cat family, apparently there's still a diversity that is hidden," said evolutionary biologist and study co-author Jonas Lescroart with the University of Antwerp.
The next challenge is finding out more about these tiny cats in the wild.
"We still don't know how many there are," Nogales-Ascarrunz said, adding that researchers still need to establish details about the new tiger cat's diet, behavior and habitat. Its presence has been confirmed only in Bolivia's Yungas forests, but its full range remains unknown.
Scientists hope the designation of the new species will help protect its forest habitat, which faces threats from accelerating deforestation and gold mining.
"We should make haste in doing these kinds of discoveries, because all of this biodiversity is under pressure, and it's disappearing as we speak," Lescroart said.
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Associated Press writers Paola Flores, Isabel DeBre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Adithi Ramakrishnan in New York contributed to this report.