La Senda Verde.

Almost ten years ago a small spotted wild cat was brought to Senda Verde. He had been taken from the forest as a kitten and kept in a household for about a year, fed food that did not meet the needs of his species. Whatever the original intention, he was kept as a pet, and by the time he arrived, returning him to the wild was no longer possible. His arrival was a rescue. Staff believed he might be a Leopardus tigrinus, so they named him Tigrino, and took responsibility for his care for life.

Because his size and features raised questions, the sanctuary contacted Bolivian biologist and small-cat specialist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz. She and an international team did the research that would eventually confirm he belongs to a species new to science. The roles are distinct and equally important: Senda Verde rescued and cares for him; Paola and the researchers identified what he is.

In 2018 he moved into a purpose-built six-metre enclosure. In 2019 she noticed his rosettes matched nothing in the field guides. It took until September 2026, and 38 sequenced genomes, for Leopardus tilcayo to be formally described, with Tigrino as the holotype: the one animal the species is defined by, and the only confirmed living tilcayo.

He is about ten years old, three pounds, and according to the people who feed him, mostly unbothered by all of this. In their words: his story should never be used to romanticize keeping wildlife as pets. He belongs to a wild species, and his place should have been in the forest.