La Paz, Bolivia - Scientists have discovered a new species of wild cat for the first time in more than a century, a Bolivian researcher told AFP on Thursday.

The Tilcayo tiger cat, a small feline with a spotted, leopard-like coat, was identified in the mountainous Yungas region near the Bolivian capital La Paz.

Initially, locals mistook the creature in the Bolivian Andes for an ordinary house cat, said biologist and National Geographic explorer Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz, who was part of the research team that studied the animals.

The nickname "tilcayo" given to the animal by locals inspired its new scientific designation: Leopardus tilcayo.

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Nogales-Ascarrunz lauded the discovery as a "remarkable event, because a new wild cat species hasn't been described in 100 years."

The cat is the first new feline discovered since the Uruguayan pampas cat in 1923.

The tilcayo is slightly smaller than a domestic cat, measuring around 18 inches, and boasts rounded ears.

A pair of tilcayos – the only such creatures found so far – have undergone whole-genome sequencing, Nogales-Ascarrunz said, referring to a type of in-depth genetic testing.

The male tilcayo is living at an animal shelter in Yungas. It was handed over to the shelter by a family who had taken the creature in. The female was rescued and released into the wild after it was attacked by locals.

Research on the species was published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology. This publication caps off research that scientists began in 2021.

"So far, it's only been detected in Bolivia" and not "anywhere else on the planet," Nogales-Ascarrunz said.

She said the creatures were classified as vulnerable to extinction, but their small numbers meant they could soon be considered "at much greater risk" of dying out.