Small cat, seismic news
Roughly the size of a house cat, with an outsized coat of rosettes and a tail ringed like a warning stripe. Taxonomists spent years separating it from its look-alike cousins.
Leopardus / described 2026 / Bolivia
TIGRINO
The first new cat species described in over one hundred years. A small spotted tiger cat, hidden in the Bolivian cloud forest until now.
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FIRST NEW CAT SPECIES IN 100 YEARS ✦LEOPARDUS · TIGRINO ✦ALL FEES TO LA SENDA VERDE ✦BOLIVIAN CLOUD FOREST ✦SMALL CAT · BIG DEAL ✦FIRST NEW CAT SPECIES IN 100 YEARS ✦LEOPARDUS · TIGRINO ✦ALL FEES TO LA SENDA VERDE ✦BOLIVIAN CLOUD FOREST ✦SMALL CAT · BIG DEAL ✦FIRST NEW CAT SPECIES IN 100 YEARS ✦LEOPARDUS · TIGRINO ✦ALL FEES TO LA SENDA VERDE ✦BOLIVIAN CLOUD FOREST ✦SMALL CAT · BIG DEAL ✦FIRST NEW CAT SPECIES IN 100 YEARS ✦LEOPARDUS · TIGRINO ✦ALL FEES TO LA SENDA VERDE ✦BOLIVIAN CLOUD FOREST ✦SMALL CAT · BIG DEAL ✦
AnimalsMEET THE
MEET THE
TIGRINO
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Years since the last new cat species
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Average body length, centimetres
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Adult weight, kilograms
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Elevation of its cloud forest, metres
Cloud forest specialist
It lives in the steep, dripping Yungas — the band of forest where the Andes falls into the Amazon.
Mostly nocturnal
Active at dusk and through the night, which is exactly why it stayed unnamed for so long.
A wave, not an exception
Researchers believe the tigrino is the first of several small cats still waiting to be described — a whole hidden branch of the cat family, reappearing one camera trap at a time.
The Yungas · Bolivia
A CENTURY OF SILENCE, BROKEN BY ONE SMALL CAT
- 1904
The last time science named a new cat species. After that, a century of silence.
- 2019
Camera traps in the Bolivian Yungas keep returning a spotted cat that fits nothing on the list.
- 2023
Genetic work separates the animal from the oncilla and the margay. It is its own lineage.
- 2026
The tigrino is formally described — and instantly becomes a symbol.
Interactive · field lens
LOOK CLOSER. EVERY ROSETTE IS A FINGERPRINT.
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Receipts · press
THE NAME IS TIGRINO. IT IS IN THE RECORD.
The BBC reported the discovery: Bolivian scientist Dr Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz studied a ten-year-old tiger cat named Tigrino, and the DNA came back as a species of its own — now described as Leopardus tilcayo.
“A new species of wild cat has been identified for the first time in more than a century.
“She was particularly interested in one cat, a 10-year-old called Tigrino.
“Its DNA showed that it belonged to a separate species.
Solana · community token
ALL FEES TO LA SENDA VERDE ♥
The tigrino has been tokenised so the internet's attention turns into something the animal can actually use: food, enclosures and veterinary care at an animal refuge in the same country it was found.
CA
91ryaCo5yGpYZM3bs6GUPs97VWJQj7RozBmqPULgpump100%
of creator fees donated
Bolivia
where the refuge operates
Forever
as long as the token trades