Tilcayo cat gallery

Updated September 18, 2026 · Photographs used with credit to their owners · Diagrams are original

Photographs of Leopardus tilcayo are rare — every published image traces back to the only known individual living in protective captivity at Senda Verde Animal Refuge, Bolivia, plus a handful of editorial images published with the species announcement. Below: the real photos, with full credit to their owners, followed by our original explanatory diagrams.

Real photographs

The tilcayo cat (Leopardus tilcayo) at Senda Verde Animal Refuge, Bolivia — An individual of *Leopardus tilcayo* at Senda Verde Animal Refuge, Bolivia's Yungas region — the only known individual of the species living in protective captivity. It arrived at the sanctuary around 2017 after being turned over by a local family.
Photo: Fernando Faciole / National Geographic · via BBC Wildlife

The captive tilcayo cat in its enclosure at Senda Verde refuge — **Portrait of the known captive individual**, a ten-year-old male. Note the muted pale-brown coat, large irregular rosettes and rounded, teddy-bear ears described by researchers.
Photo: Fernando Faciole / National Geographic · via BBC Wildlife

Aerial view of Senda Verde Animal Refuge on the Yolosa River in Bolivia's Yungas — **Senda Verde Animal Refuge from the air**, located along the banks of the Yolosa River in the Yungas region — where the discovery story began in 2017.
Photo: Fernando Faciole / National Geographic · via BBC Wildlife

Editorial photograph of the new wild cat species Leopardus tilcayo published with the species announcement — **Editorial image published with the species announcement** — the first new wild cat species described in more than a century.
Image: UA.NEWS / Asharq Al-Awsat

Original diagrams & illustrations

No wild tilcayo has ever been photographed on camera trap yet, and no licensed photo exists for concepts like size comparison — so we drew them. These are stylized renderings based on published descriptions, not photographs.

Size comparison: ≈1.4 kg and 45 cm — smaller than an average house cat. (Illustration)

Coat pattern: open rosettes (tilcayo) vs. fine solid spots (oncilla). (Illustration)

Range: Bolivia's Yungas cloud forest on the eastern Andean slopes. (Illustrative map)

Camera-trap concept: the best hope of documenting wild tilcayos. (Illustration)

Credits & usage: photographs remain the property of their credited owners (Fernando Faciole / National Geographic; UA.NEWS / Asharq Al-Awsat) and are reproduced here for illustrative educational purposes with attribution and source links. Our own diagrams are original works created for TilcayoCat.com — stylized renderings based on published descriptions, not photographs, and may not reflect the species' exact appearance. Media inquiries: see the contact page.