A tiny spotted cat in Bolivia has just been recognised as a new species.
At roughly 5 pounds, Leopardus tilcayo has a slender body, light brown coat and dark rosettes. When biologist Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz first saw the cat at a wildlife sanctuary in 2016, she thought he belonged to the already known Leopardus tigrinus species. Then she noticed something unusual. His rosettes were larger. Genetic testing eventually confirmed that he belonged to an entirely different species. It is the first time scientists have confirmed a new feline species in more than a century.
Thousands of kilometres away, another group of animals has just received almost the opposite news. Australia’s so-called pygmy crocodiles are unusual. Very unusual. High in the sandstone escarpments of the Northern Territory, freshwater crocodiles living in the upper Liverpool River grow to only around half the size of their downstream relatives. Mature females measured in the original survey were around 1.07 to 1.12 metres long, with one mature male measuring 1.18 metres. Elsewhere, freshwater crocodiles can grow considerably larger.
Scientists have debated for decades whether these isolated crocodiles were different enough to constitute another species. Now genetic research says no. And suddenly we reach a much bigger question. How different does an animal have to be before humans decide they deserve protection?
