Discovery in Bolivia sheds light on the mysterious clouded tiger-cat
The nocturnal, solitary ‘Leopardus pardinoides,’ recently recognized as a species, was recorded for the first time in Cochabamba
They are easy to mistake for a house cat: similar in size, several are completely black, and they have that confident look in their penetrating eyes. At times they can even be docile and remain close to people. They are rarely seen because they are nocturnal and not abundant; there is also little information about them online. However, biologists who study the complex of tiger cat or oncilla species describe it as “one of the most intriguing, enigmatic, and fascinating groups of felines.” And the scientific community is becoming increasingly drawn to them. In 2024, one of its members — the clouded tiger-cat — was recognized as a distinct species after it was spotted in a region of Bolivia where there had been no previous records of its presence, according to a study published this year.
The clouded tiger-cat, or Leopardus pardinoides, spends much of its time in trees and occupies large tracts of forest, so it was a chance event when biologist Oliver Quinteros spotted one accidentally in February last year. Quinteros is a herpetologist and was with other researchers conducting nocturnal monitoring of threatened amphibians in Carrasco Park, a cloud forest situated above 2,250 meters in elevation, about 100 miles from the city of Cochabamba. “By chance, the animal appeared in front of us. It acted very calmly, didn’t get scared at all, and gave us the chance to take photos with our phones,” the scientist tells El PAÍS.
“It was a very beautiful and exciting moment. And for it to behave so subtly... we rarely come face to face with a tiger-cat,” Quinteros says. The scientific community welcomed the finding. Beyond helping to understand the cat’s distribution and diversity for conservation planning, it sheds light on an elusive species whose characteristics are still being discovered and documented.
A study published in the journal Nature that confirmed Leopardus pardinoides as one of three tiger-cat species says that, because of the limited knowledge available, “the tiger-cat, before and after the species split, has long been the subject of several preconceptions regarding where it ranges and the associated habitats.” Improvements in camera traps were essential to study live specimens and determine — among other things, through significant differences in spot patterns, body measurements, and proportions — that the clouded tiger-cat was a species distinct from the rest of the tiger-cat species complex.
Until 2024 only the northern or savanna tiger-cat (Leopardus tigrinus) and the Atlantic Forest tiger-cat (Leopardus guttulus) were recognized as distinct species. Scientists consider the recently added clouded tiger-cat the most clearly differentiated of the group, but mammalogist Damián Rumiz, who took part in the research that confirmed the new species, says they are hard to tell apart. “There are subtle morphological differences, statistically distinguishable, such as spot pattern, body, tail, and skull measurements. Also the type of habitat they live in and genetic characteristics that date the split of pardinoides from the rest to about 2.45 million years ago,” he explains, also confirming that the specimen found in Cochabamba was a clouded tiger-cat.
The feline, now elevated to species status, has a coat of more-or-less circular rosettes on a yellowish-brown background. It weighs no more than three kilograms, has a thick tail longer than those of other tiger-cats, and short, rounded ears. It feeds on small vertebrates. It typically inhabits elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 meters in humid Andean forests. Colombia accounts for 40% of its distribution, although records also exist in Central America, specifically Costa Rica and Panama.
Its sister species, tigrinus and guttulus, live in northeastern Brazil and the Atlantic Forest, respectively. Knowing species’ distributions, the 2024 report says, is the first step to establishing conservation and wildlife management measures. This is urgent given that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists tigrinus and guttulus as vulnerable to extinction, the same category in which the new edition of Bolivia’s Red Book of Vertebrates, published last month, places the clouded tiger-cat.
The greatest threats are linked to habitat loss. The research in which Rumiz participated shows that the tiger-cats’ distribution has shrunk by between 50% and 68% compared with their historical range. They live in regions such as the tropical Andes and the Atlantic Forest, afflicted by extensive agriculture and resulting deforestation. In addition, these are areas close to human settlements, which brings dangers such as one Quinteros warns about: “It can be the same as with jaguars or pumas, where ranchers pay to have them killed; livestock is worth more than the wildlife we have.”
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