Leave Me Wild…

As always, I did my monthly news search to find out what’s happening in the world, and the most reported cat story this month is the discovery of a new species in Bolivia. The Tilcayo, as it was named by local communities, is the first new species to be described and named in more than a century. You can read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/17/new-cat-species-identified-bolivia

The concern I have with this recent development is how humans react to smaller wildcats. A trend I noticed (and am very uncomfortable with) was multiple different hybrids becoming commonplace in society and being kept in homes. Breeders saw an opportunity to benefit financially from the aesthetics and novelty of hybrids, and didn’t consider the psychological aspect of the pairing. While I’ve no doubt a newly discovered species will get a little more protection from this occurring, it’s a concern to me that there might be people who will be determined to find a way to profit from this news, as opposed to doing what should be done. Hopefully that won’t be the case.