tl;dr: Bolivian biologists have identified *Leopardus tilcayo*, a small spotted cat from the Yungas forest, as the first entirely new felid species described in over a century, confirmed via whole-genome analysis of 38 Leopardus individuals showing it diverged from related tiger cats ~1.4 million years ago. The finding splits what was once considered a single tiger cat species into five, with hints that margays may actually be four species—reshaping the cat family tree and forcing reassessment of conservation status, since smaller, fragmented populations face greater extinction risk.