Some weeks, the headlines feel relentlessly bleak.

Tragic murders in Johannesburg causing women across the country to feel (more) unsafe. American AI leaders asking to be policed because they think their ‘frontier models’ could soon be too dangerous to control. Talk of record fuel prices coming for already-strained pockets. The list goes on.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Last week, I happened upon a genuinely uplifting story of discovery. For the first time in over 100 years, a new species of cat was formally described. The Leopardus tilcayo from the cloud forests of Bolivia is the first new significant animal “discovery” that I can recall in recent memory.

I say “discovery” in air quotes because the cat was already known to the nearby indigenous communities, hence the traditional name ‘tilcayo‘, but it’s new to the wider scientific community. And I say “significant” because of course there are thousands of new bacteria, plants, organisms, insects, birds and sea creatures discovered every year

But a cat? With the unceasing expansion of humanity over the last few centuries, I guess I just figured there was nothing new on land of that size still to find. What a joy!

The tilcayo is admittedly small, just under 50cm in length and less than 2kg in weight, and looks remarkably similar to a few other known ‘tiger cat’ species. This is likely part of the reason it has avoided formal recognition until recently. Researchers have so far only had access to two live individuals and a small number of camera-trap records.

One tilcayo, which is being cared for at a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia, is the only known example of the species in captivity. It was handed over to researchers after previously being mistaken for a house cat and picked up as a kitten.

Who knows what else might be out there – smart enough to stay out of our way, enjoying its time in obscurity. It’s no wonder past civilisations invented mythical creatures aplenty to fill in the gaps. If you never left Athens, let alone Greece, why wouldn’t you imagine dragons roaming the outside world?

As we are collectively driven inward by safety fears, technological convenience and economic pressures, it’s exciting to know that the world still has plenty with which to surprise us.