Today I was introduced to a new species of wild cat, Leopardus tilcayo, known proudly in Bolivia as Tilcayo. It has a beautiful spotted coat and is smaller than many house cats. I learned of Tilcayo from today's episode of Science Friday, an interview with Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz of the National Natural History Museum of Bolivia, who identified the species. Tilcayo is the first extant cat species formally described since 1923. It was already known to local communities under that name. The story of its description is quite interesting: In 2016, a man living in La Paz rescued a kitten from a road and raised it thinking it was a domestic cat. When it started hunting his chickens, he decided it needed to be in the Senda Verde Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary contacted Nogales-Ascarrunz in 2017. She photographed the cat, at first believing it was a unique-looking member of the related species Leopardus tigrinus (Oncilla). In 2019, while preparing a booklet of Bolivian cat species, she realized it appeared distinct from L. tigrinus. She had a genetic analysis done from its saliva and then its hair. Both results were so far afield that she first believed she had made mistakes in her analysis. Eventually, as she gained more experience, she became confident of her findings, and she published a paper with other scientists less than a month ago, announcing the new species. Tilcayo has become a national hero in Bolivia, a country suffering under a poor economy and corrupt leaders. A billboard pronounced, "Long Live Tilcayo, Not Paz." Rodrigo Paz being the president of the country. Credits: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-tilcayo-is-the-new-wild-cat-on-the-block/ https://w.wiki/Uq7s Photo: https://w.wiki/WRAu Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz 2026, Free Use Today was an even shorter, slower spin. I tried to keep my cadence at 90, which means I went slower than I could, on purpose. I left earlier, but it was cool until I got back. The forecast is 95 today in Santa Cruz. Leaving this afternoon to camp in Alameda County, then ride the Mount Diablo Challenge tomorrow.