A New Kitty

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

–Carl Sandburg, Fog

We’ve probed our planet so thoroughly that you might think the days of discovering big, unseen critters could be over.

Bacteria, insects, even tiny birds, sure. Perhaps something large from the depths of the ocean. But on Earth’s surface, hiding spots are becoming increasingly rare.

Yet the era of never-before-seen animals isn’t quite history yet!

In 1993, researchers found a novel bovid species called the saola, an antelope-like creature, in the forests of Vietnam. Just a year later, Vietnam produced another discovery: a deer known as the giant muntjac.

The advent of genetic testing has also allowed us to recognize new species hiding in plain sight.

DNA samples have demonstrated that African forest elephants, for example, are distinct from African savanna or bush elephants. In 2017, researchers determined that a group of 800 orangutans on Sumatra was genetically distinguishable from Bornean orangutans and the main species of Sumatran orangutans. Labeling the Tapanuli orangutan as its own species might not be possible to the human eye without genetic sampling, as they can be difficult to visually distinguish from their relatives.

As time marches onward and the dark spots of our exploration shrink, DNA analysis might one day be the only way we come upon new species.

Every so often, though, the misty jungles cough up a critter that we should have known was unique without peeking into its genes.

In 2016, a man living on the edge of Bolivia’s cloud forest – the nexus between the Andes and the Amazon – found a cat outside. Thinking it was a domestic feline, he scooped it up and gave it a home.

Over the next year, he realized this kitty didn’t take to human cohabitation like Felis catus. So, he visited the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary, where officials thought he had corralled an oncilla, or the northern tiger cat. Leopardus tigrinus is one of several tiger cat species that inhabit South America.

But the sharp eyes of biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz noticed something odd about this supposed oncilla.

The individual featured irregular, open rosettes, the zoological name for the markings on cats that resemble flowers. They didn’t quite match those of the oncilla.

Wondering if they had really encountered something new, they went to the DNA. To their surprise, this cat didn’t match any of the tiger cat species!

Introducing the tilcayo cat:

In 1923, scientists found the pampas cat skittering around the grasslands of South America. We waited more than a century for the tilcayo cat to end the drought of novel feline species!

Of course, this “new” cat is rather old in two distinct ways. Analysis shows the tilcayo diverged from other tiger cats about 1.4 million years ago, so it’s been lurking in the Amazon for quite a while. Further, though we just named this kitty, its scientific emergence wasn’t a first sighting; Indigenous people have known about it for generations. Tilcayo is the native name, though its meaning currently seems lost in the haze of oral tradition.

Tilcayo is smaller than most domestic cats: usually around 17 to 20 inches in length, weighing three to four pounds. The feline does boast a rather long tail for its body length, around 10 inches.

Tiny, round ears, lengthy whiskers, incredible markings, a rumpled face, and deep, amber eyes make the tilcayo quite the looker.

Will Leopardus tilcayo sit on its haunches, having pranced out on little, cloudy, Bolivian feet, as the last new cat species we ever identify, or will another emerge from some other fog?

The tiger cats form a group of so-called “cryptic species,” clusters that can be difficult to distinguish based on looks alone. Coupled with the wonders of genetic testing, chances are good that another new cat might slink unknown somewhere on Earth.

Ailurophiles can only hope we don’t have to wait another hundred years for the next adorable purr-face.