Newest species of wild cat

The newest species of wild cat to be scientifically recognized is the tilcayo (Leopardus tilcayo), native to the mountainous Yungas forest region of Bolivia, on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Presently known to science from only a single captive living specimen and currently no identified museum material, it is familiar to native people sharing the captive specimen's provenance, who call its species the tilcayo. It is the size of a domestic cat, with a spotted coat, and its existence was revealed to science during a detailed comparative DNA study of neotropical tiger cats (a species complex of which the tilcayo is one of its five members). The study's findings were published in Current Biology on 17 September 2026.

Modern-day felid taxonomists have generally recognized only a single species of tiger cat, Leopardus tigrinus, known variously as the tiger cat, tigrillo, little spotted cat and oncilla.

But following a series of recent genetic studies, four additional species have been distinguished, based upon DNA differences. The first to be delineated as a separate species, in 2013, was L. guttulus, the southern tiger cat (after which L. tigrinus was renamed the northern tiger cat). Then in 2024, a third species was recognized, the clouded tiger cat (L. pardinoides). This was followed by a fourth, the eastern tiger cat (L. emiliae), and now a fifth, L. tilcayo.

Collectively, they are known as the tiger cat species complex, and although these five species are very difficult to tell apart externally, they exhibit distinct DNA differences; even so, certain researchers have questioned whether some or all of them truly warrant separate species status.

The research was a collaboration between the University of Antwerp (Belgium), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Universidade Federal do Ceará Federal University of Ceará, Maranhão State University, Brazilian Institute of Biodiversity Genomics, Grupo de Estudos de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Rio Grande do Sul, Institute for the Conservation of Neotropical Carnivores (all Brazil), Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, Senda Verde Animal Refuge (both Bolivia), University of California, Santa Cruz (USA), University of Antioquia (Colombia), University of Oxford (UK), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and Centro de Ornitologia y Biodiversidad (both Peru). The study was led by Hannes Svardal (of the University of Antwerp) and Eduardo Eizirik (of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul).