A new species of cat was recently discovered in Bolivia. They are smaller than domestic cats. IMHO they look like miniature leopards. They were reportedly discovered after someone tried to adopt one thinking it was a stray cat. They eventually realized it wasn’t a stray and brought it to a wildlife sanctuary.
That article appears to be behind a paywall. Here instead is one from Reuters. FYI, the species is called Leopardus tilcayo.
There is already a Wikipedia page for it:
Very cool!
How long before someone attempts to domesticate one?
The article begins by describing that that is exactly what some guy attempted.
To be fair he thought he was rescuing a stray cat. Once he realized he had a wild animal, he took it to a wildlife rehab facility.
I was imagining a Bolivian crazy cat lady trying to do so, knowing that it is a wild animal.
I’m fascinated by the line “they eventually realized it wasn’t a stray”! Exactly how did they come to realize this? Curious readers want to know! 
The biologist was “intrigued” and “took pictures” and yet .. no pictures! 
There’s a good picture in the Reuters link in the second post. But capture the image if you like it, because after the first visit, the site insists you subscribe.
[Moderator Note - Text Removed]
The text of your post has been removed since it gave instructions on how to bypass a firewall.
While blocking ads is perfectly legal and acceptable, bypassing firewalls is considered theft of service and is not allowed. Seems like a bit of an odd place to draw the line if you ask me, but that’s what the courts have decided.
The original link is not beyond a paywall. It does make you enter your email to subscribe to their feed, which is annoying, but it’s a different kind of annoying than an actual paywall.
Very cute. As I’ve noted before, the Americas have an inordinate number of small, spotted cat species. Many of them with quite small, endangered populations. The genus Leopardus is filled with a variety of similar-looking critters from the relatively well known ocelot and margay, to the pretty obscure oncilla and kodkod. It would pretty easy to mistake this melanistic kodkod for somebody’s escaped pet, but it very much is not.
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Wow, I consider myself fairly well-informed about the various wild cats, but I’d never heard of either of those.
“Pretty obscure” indeed!
(Thanks for teaching me a thing today.)
Very cool. As a former Zoologist I am always surprised when a new animal species is discovered. The fact that it has been unknown for so long tells me it’s been able to live in a remote location where it’s not likely to be seen. I hope it stays that way and tourists aren’t allowed to tdisturb it’s daily life.
This should be non-paywalled:
According to the article it was known to locals - hence the proposed scientific name, which is the native word for it - so really, it was only “unknown for so long” to silly researchers.
Looks like they’re the size of our two diminutive cats.