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File / 11 · Known locally / new to taxonomy

The cat already had a name before science arrived

Surreal Nogical corridor overtaken by a Yungas cloud forest, where a tiny spotted tilcayo stands on a mossy branch.
Original Nogical illustration · Interpretive image, not wildlife photography

Whole-genome comparisons formally separated the tilcayo of Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest from other South American tiger cats, making Leopardus tilcayo the first living cat species described by science in more than a century. Local communities already knew its name. Its taxonomic identity is established; its range, wild population, reproduction and conservation status remain largely unknown.

Next in the drawer →He opened a camping map and found a 390-million-year wound