A new species of cat has been identified in one of the most remote forests of Bolivia, marking the first such discovery in more than 100 years.
The Tilkayo is a small wild cat with distinctly dotted fur that weighs only 1.4 kg, making it significantly smaller than a typical domestic cat. The details were shared by TikTok creator Dylan Page, who explained how the animal came to be recognized.
What makes the discovery particularly unusual is how it unfolded. According to Page, the local community was already familiar with these cats, and one Bolivian family even kept one as a pet. When the family realized the animal was a wild cat species and could not be cared for long term, they brought it to a sanctuary in 2017.
Over time, biologists at the sanctuary noticed the cat was unlike any species they knew. After roughly a decade of DNA analysis and research, they confirmed it as a distinct species of tiger cat that had never been documented before.
Article and image source: tiktok.com
