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SCI109: A man in Bolivia found a helpless kitten, took it home, and fed it rice, noodles and eggs for a year before deciding it might not be a house cat after all. He was right. In September 2026 that cat became the face of the first new cat species formally described in over a century: the tilcayo, or Leopardus tilcayo, a tiny spotted cat of the Bolivian Yungas.

Caroline Knight brings Lindsay Sant and Lino Saubolle the story, which Lindsay requested and Caroline happily delivers. After the man surrendered the cat to the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary, where he was nicknamed Tigrino, it caught the eye of Bolivian biologist and National Geographic Explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. She noticed he didn’t quite match the tiger cats in the field guides.

The panel looks at where the tilcayo tiger cat lives: the Yungas cloud forest, a steep, misty band on the eastern slope of the Andes where trade winds push Amazon moisture uphill until it falls as near-constant rain. Mosses, orchids, tree ferns and mountain bamboo cover the trees, and the valleys hold the spectacled bear, the pacarana and the Andean cock-of-the-rock.

Then the science. Working with evolutionary biologist Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp, the team combined whole-genome sequencing with museomics, pulling DNA from old museum pelts, bones and mounts. The result, published in Current Biology on September 17, 2026, compared 38 complete genomes from the genus Leopardus. Where scientists had long lumped small spotted cats together as one species, the data showed the tiger cat complex is five distinct species, and the tilcayo split from its relatives more than 1.4 million years ago.

That matters beyond naming rights. A widespread species can look secure on paper, but five species with smaller ranges each have fewer animals and less room. The tilcayo is so far confirmed only in the Bolivian Yungas, which puts that cloud forest high on the conservation list.

Along the way: how hard it would be to go looking for more tilcayos in those mountains, Caroline’s memories of the high Andes in Peru, and whether Fat Bear Week has finally met its match.

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Links for this episode:

• Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats in South America (Current Biology)
• Meet the newest living cat species, the first described in 100 years (Science News)

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