A miniature leopard look-alike with no interest in domestic life helped put a new wild cat species on the scientific map. The tilcayo’s story offers a glimpse into how species are discovered and protected.
There’s a new cat in town, but this one won’t curl up on your hamper, knead your sweaters or squeeze in front of your screen during a Zoom meeting. 
Scientists recently recognized Leopardus tilcayo, a dainty spotted feline native to Bolivia’s cloud forests, as a distinct species of tiger cat, a group of small wild cats belonging to the ocelot lineage. They also found that there are actually five different species of tiger cats out there, and the tilcayo is one of them.
And yes, the names are indeed a mishmash of spots and stripes. Tiger cats belong to the Leopardus genus, but are actually neither tigers nor leopards — though they do look like miniature versions of the latter.
The first new wild cat described in over a century, the tilcayo has a story that began with one family’s unsuccessful attempt to turn what they thought was a kitten named Tigrino into a pet. The stray stuck to his wild ways, and the family eventually brought him to a wildlife sanctuary. Genetic tests that confirmed his lineage later explained why domestication was not in the cards for Tigrino. 
How does this story fit into the larger evolutionary landscape? 
Northeastern marine and environmental studies professor Stephanie Eby and other experts shared their thoughts.
Sometimes one glance is all it takes.
“You see a zebra and a giraffe, and they look completely different,” Eby said. 
But this method doesn’t always work with cats.
They say all cats look the same in the dark, and the tilcayo and its close cousins are no different. Even in broad daylight they all resemble “a bunch of little leopard-spotted cats,” Eby explained.
Felines as a whole share a surprising number of physical traits, Jim Sanderson, founder and director of the Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation, a nonprofit, told Northeastern Global News.
“Once nature reaches perfection, she only tweaks a little,” he said.
When animals look alike, scientists need a different way to determine where variation within one species ends and another begins. One way is by looking at reproduction. Can the animals breed, and can their descendants do the same? 
Moreover, in recent decades, scientists have increasingly turned to genetic analysis when asking whether a population forms its own recognizable branch on the evolutionary tree.
“Even within the same species, DNA varies a bit,” Eby said. As populations adapt to different environments, however, traits that give them an advantage take root. They make the genetic differences between groups more pronounced over time.
Scientists compare these differences and use statistical methods to decide when a genetic signature becomes a sign of a separate species. 
Decades ago, scientists collected specimens in the field and compared them to known animals, Eby said. While expeditions still happen, DNA technology has given scientists a new way to spot differences that aren’t visible to the eye. 
That said, “there’s a difference between a species being scientifically identified and a species being known,” Eby noted. For example, local communities were aware of the tilcayo for generations.
It’s also important to remember that nature doesn’t pause to file paperwork when one species becomes two. Instead, it’s an ongoing process. Scientists use the concept of subspecies to mark groups in transition, Eby explained. 
New species also form when animals from different groups interbreed, producing descendants that follow a separate evolutionary path.
That’s exactly what’s going on in the case of tiger cats. 
Sanderson explained that in southern Brazil, two of five existing species — Geoffroy’s cats and Atlantic Forest cats — are interbreeding as they adapt to human-altered landscapes. This is allowing scientists to watch a sixth species emerge in real time.
“We’re seeing evolution in action,” he said.
“We don’t actually know how many species there are on Earth,” Eby said. Estimates range from 8 to 20 million. Scientists have only identified 1.5 to 1.7 million, with around 16,000 new ones added to the list every year.
Some animals are tiny, live in hard-to-reach places or closely resemble known species, Eby explained.
Roughly half of known beetle species are so rare that they have been identified from a single specimen — the only one ever found, Sanderson said.
“Identify it, and it’s probably the last time you’ll see it,” he said.
Given how quickly species are going extinct, the search has become a race against time.
“The assumption is we’re losing ones we don’t know about yet,” Eby said. 
Bhavna Menon, founder of the wildlife conservation organization Baghesur Collective, described discoveries, such as the recent revelation of Leopardus tilcayo, as “a wonderful reminder of how much remains unknown.” 
“We cannot protect or fully appreciate what we have not yet recognized or understood,” she said.
Moreover, a population may look healthy only because scientists have lumped it together with its relatives. 
“That’s the real importance of recognizing a species from a subspecies,” Sanderson said.
Small felines rarely attract the same attention as their larger relatives. Yet Sanderson said coverage of the tilcayo drew more online traffic than Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion whose killing by an American trophy hunter sparked global outrage in 2015.
“The small cats are having their day,” he said. 
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Katya Poltorak is a science reporter at Northeastern Global News. Email her at e.poltorak@northeastern.edu.
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