Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

Scientists found a new kind of wild cat. It lives in Bolivia, a country in South America.

The cat is very small. It is about the size of a house cat. It weighs four to six pounds.

Its name is tilcayo. People who live near the cat use this word.

This is the first new cat species in more than 100 years.

scientist

A person who studies the world to learn how it works.

wild

Living in nature, not with people.

cat

A small animal with soft fur, four legs and a tail.

small

Not big.

country

A land with its own people and government, like Bolivia.

name

The word we use to call a person, animal or thing.

found

Discovered something you were looking for.

year

A period of twelve months.

Level 2 — Elementary

An international team of scientists has described a new species of wild cat from Bolivia. They published their work on 17 September in the journal Current Biology. The new species is called Leopardus tilcayo, named after the word local people use for these cats.

The tilcayo belongs to a group known as tiger cats, or oncillas. They are not related to tigers. They are tiny, usually one to two feet long and weighing four to six pounds, with light brown fur and dark rings and spots that help them hide in the forest.

Tiger cats are very hard to tell apart by sight. Different species look almost the same, so scientists must compare their genes instead. The team studied the complete genomes of 38 cats, including 26 tiger cats, using both fresh samples and old specimens kept in museums.

The discovery began with one cat. In 2016, the biologist Paola Nogales Ascarrunz got a call from a Bolivian wildlife refuge about a strange cat. That animal, nicknamed Tigrino, helped lead the team to the new species.

species

A group of living things that can have young together.

journal

A magazine where scientists publish their research.

publish

To make written work available for others to read.

gene

A part of a living thing that carries instructions passed from parents.

genome

The complete set of genetic instructions in a living thing.

specimen

An animal or plant kept for scientific study.

museum

A building where objects of interest are kept and shown.

refuge

A safe place where animals are protected.

Level 3 — Intermediate

Scientists have formally described a previously unknown species of wild cat living in Bolivia, publishing their findings on 17 September in the journal Current Biology. Named Leopardus tilcayo after the local term for these animals, it is, according to lead author Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp, the first living cat species to be discovered and newly named in over a century.

The animal belongs to a poorly understood group called tiger cats, or oncillas, which despite the name are small relatives of the ocelot rather than of the tiger. They measure one to two feet in body length and weigh four to six pounds, with spotted and striped coats that camouflage them against the dappled light of the forest floor. Crucially, they are cryptic: different species look so alike that appearance alone cannot separate them, and genetics is the only reliable arbiter.

That is why the study's scope mattered. The team sequenced complete genomes for 38 cats in the genus Leopardus, 26 of them tiger cats, drawing on specimens from regions never previously sampled, including the Guianas, where the original tiger cat was described in 1775. Museum collections supplied historical material that no field expedition could now obtain. The analysis found that at least five distinct species of tiger cat live across the region, along with a previously unrecognised subspecies the team calls Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.

The consequences are practical as well as taxonomic. Two tiger cat species are currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, but the newly separated groups may be under greater threat than those combined figures suggest. Lescroart says the team has already shared its results with the IUCN, which will assess each unit separately in its coming review.

describe

In science, to formally record a new species with a name and definition.

camouflage

Colouring or patterns that help an animal blend into its surroundings.

cryptic

In biology, describing species that look almost identical to one another.

arbiter

Something or someone with the power to settle a question.

sequence

To work out the exact order of the chemical letters in DNA.

genus

A group of closely related species in scientific classification.

subspecies

A distinct population within a species, not different enough to be its own species.

taxonomic

Relating to the scientific classification and naming of living things.

Level 4 — Advanced

It is a peculiarity of biological science that the discovery of a new mammal is rarely an act of finding and almost always an act of distinguishing. The cat described on 17 September in Current Biology, Leopardus tilcayo, was not hidden from human eyes; the people of its Bolivian range have a word for it, which is the word the researchers adopted. What was missing was the evidence to establish that this animal constitutes a species of its own. Lead author Jonas Lescroart of the University of Antwerp notes that it is the first living cat species to be discovered and newly named in more than a hundred years.

The delay is explained by the group to which it belongs. Tiger cats, or oncillas, are small spotted felids of the genus Leopardus, nearer to ocelots than to any tiger, running to one or two feet in body length and four to six pounds in weight. They are also textbook cryptic species: morphologically near-indistinguishable, so that the traditional instruments of taxonomy, skulls and pelts and measurement, produce disagreement rather than resolution. Only genomics arbitrates, and the sequencing required to arbitrate at continental scale has become affordable only recently.

The present study is the most complete attempt so far. Thirty-eight Leopardus genomes were sequenced, twenty-six of them tiger cats, and the sampling deliberately reached regions that earlier surveys had left blank, including the Guianas, where Leopardus tigrinus was originally described in 1775. Material drawn from natural history museums proved decisive, furnishing genetic information from populations and periods that no contemporary expedition could reconstruct, and vindicating the unfashionable proposition that a drawer of century-old specimens is a scientific instrument. The results support at least five distinct tiger cat species and add an unrecognised subspecies, Leopardus tigrinus antisuyo.

The conservation arithmetic changes accordingly. Where two species were previously assessed as vulnerable, the same animals now resolve into a larger number of smaller populations, each with a narrower range and a correspondingly thinner margin. A taxonomic revision of this kind does not alter how many cats exist; it alters how precisely their peril can be described, which is the precondition for protecting them. The IUCN has received the findings and will evaluate each unit independently in its forthcoming reassessment.

peculiarity

An odd or distinctive feature of something.

constitute

To be or to form something.

felid

A member of the cat family.

morphologically

In terms of physical form and structure.

genomics

The study of complete sets of genetic material.

decisive

Settling an issue beyond doubt.

vindicate

To prove that something is right or worthwhile.