Scientists have officially named Leopardus tilcayo, the tilcayo tiger cat, as a new species of South American small wild cat, according to a paper published this week in Current Biology and corroborated by Wikipedia’s entry on the northern tiger cat (oncilla).
The species inhabits the Yungas, a bioregion of cloud forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains in Peru and Bolivia, where the Andean highlands meet the eastern forests. It is a small spotted cat in the Leopardus genus, related to the oncilla, the margay, and the Andean mountain cat.
The paper, titled “Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats,” was led by Lescroart and colleagues with co-author Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz of Bolivia, alongside scientists from Belgium and Brazil. It used full-genome sequencing to revise the taxonomy of the broader tiger-cat group, recognizing three species already proposed in recent years and adding one new species and one new subspecies.
The paper recognizes five distinct tiger-cat taxa in its formal taxonomy. Three of those are species that had been proposed in recent years: the southern tiger cat (L. guttulus), recognized as a distinct species since 2013, and the clouded tiger cat (L. pardinoides), recognized as a distinct species following a 2024 study.
The remaining taxa are the oncilla, or northern tiger cat (L. tigrinus), which the paper retains, plus two new additions. Those additions are the tilcayo (Leopardus tilcayo), a new species, and a new subspecies, the Antisuyo tiger cat (L. t. antisuyo). The paper also formally applied the common name Guiana tiger cat to the L. t. tigrinus subspecies. The paper’s public citation is available at DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2026.08.059. The full text is paywalled on cell.com.
The discovery fits a broader pattern of taxonomic revision in the Leopardus genus over the past 13 years. Researchers had previously proposed a single “Leopardus tigrinus” with multiple subspecies across Central and South America. The 2013 southern tiger cat split, the 2024 clouded tiger cat split, and now the 2026 tilcayo have together reshaped the picture.
The tilcayo’s conservation status had not received a formal IUCN Red List assessment as of publication. Related Leopardus species, including the oncilla and clouded tiger cat, are listed as threatened by deforestation, climate change, and habitat conversion across their Andean cloud-forest ranges.
Scientists are now setting up camera traps in the Yungas to estimate how many of the cats remain in the wild, according to the research team. The broader context for the discovery includes a separate viral Bolivia cat sighting at the Cristo de la Concordia that drew international attention earlier.
Within hours of the news breaking, social media lit up with unverified claims that the CEO of crypto casino Rainbet had allegedly offered $5 million to adopt the cat, according to aggregator account kira (@kirawontmiss). There is no confirmation from the sanctuary, the scientists, or Rainbet itself. The post itself hedges the claim with “reportedly.” Hypefresh has separately covered Rainbet’s $50 million streaming deal with streamer Adin Ross in 2026.
Rainbet is a crypto casino platform whose public-facing CEO is known only by the first name “John.” Wildlife conservation organizations typically do not transfer newly described species to private individuals, but no official statement has been issued by any party named in the social media claim.
Newly discovered species often spend years between formal scientific description and any conservation assessment. Hypefresh’s coverage of a new dinosaur species discovery in Morocco followed a similar pattern of formal publication preceding any conservation status.
