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> And they said, ‘I don’t know! My grandpa called it tilcayo, so I call it tilcayo.

I'm curious if the locals knew it was distinct from other similar species, e.g. Oncilla/L. tigrinus, or if tilcayo is the locals' name for a broader set of 2+ visually similar species?

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The wiki article on it says it was known to locals. I think the problem is that they kept describing tilcayo, and everyone who wasn't there but was listening said "Oh that sounds exactly like an oncilla. must be a second name or something."

Yeah that's what I'm curious about. "Known to locals" is very vague, and there are a lot of situations that could fit that description. The situation you mention is probably the most reasonable concrete interpretation, but my guess is that there was a game of telephone from locals -> scientists -> journalists -> wiki, and any nuance we could read into has been lost.

Update: The name tilcayo has been associated with oncilla by a bolivian government survey of fauna: https://repositorio.uasb.edu.bo/items/0e30ad14-971b-4d99-9aa...

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