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> Wikipedia doesn't have a page dedicated to it yet.

Someone has been typing quickly...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilcayo_tiger_cat

Oh wow, they are really beautiful. I can tell they are perfect killing machines behind the cuteness.

Looks like a house cat, I am betting it's a matter of months before someone starts selling the crossbreds, like they do with Bengal.

Also, they're only 3-4 lbs!

It's a sign of the times that I'd probably think "AI-generated" if I saw those images without any surrounding context.

(Maybe a few years ago, I might've thought "great Photoshop job" instead...)

The wiki article on it says it was known to locals. I think the problem is that they kept describing tilcayo, and everyone who wasn't there but was listening said "Oh that sounds exactly like an oncilla. must be a second name or something."

Since this cat is Bolivian, they would be jaguar spots, rather than leopard ones.

The conquistadors referred to the jaguars as "tigers" - they certainly aren't lions - and that custom stuck around for long enough for this to become a tiger cat!

> A genetic analysis of 38 cats from South and Central America, including 26 individuals in the Leopardus tigrinus species complex, revealed that the tigrinus complex consists of five distinct species, including L. tilcayo, which is believed to have split off from other Leopardus species over 1.4 million years ago.[5] The study incorporated genetic material from previously unsampled tiger cats in the Guianas region, near where L. tigrinus was originally described in 1775. Jonas Lescroart, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Antwerp, and co-lead author of the study called it "the most complete genetic study yet" of tiger cats.

-Wikipedia

Wait, "pspspsps"? Where are you from? I thought only Greeks do "pspspsps".

A fun book is Bad Magic by Stephan Zielinski. Kind of an awkward one to find since it's a common title from a while back (2004) at the very start of urban fantasy... and the author didn't appear to have written anything else.

At one point in the book, several of the characters are in South America looking for a jaguar. They ask the synesthetic mage of their group (each character has a different magical background)...

    “Got anything to call a jaguar?”
    Rider purses his lips. “Well … there is one incantation. But I’m not sure it’ll work. Even the most skilled thaumaturges can’t pull it off more than a quarter of the time.”
    Sturgeon shrugs. “May as well try it, Al.”
    Rider nods. “Okay. Be quiet, everybody.” He rolls his head on his neck, holds up his arms. Takes several deep breaths. Opens his mouth. Intones, “Here, kitty kitty kitty … here, kitty…”
    Chloe throws a clot of mud in his face as Rider dissolves into whoops of laughter. Everybody shakes their heads in disgust and they troop off into the green.

I think you’re confusing species with genetic variation within a species.

They still have widespread international distribution.

Personally I thought the internet would have been a bigger threat to their readership.