Penguins and tiger cats and octopi, oh my! A myriad of new species being discovered just as doomsdayism starts to colonise the imagination seems, almost, like a message to abandon anthropocentricism. The cheer that greeted the discovery of a new species of wild cat, the Leopardus tilcayo, in Bolivia may have been the loudest — it’s the first discovery of a feline species in a 100 years — but celebrate, too, the new penguin species (also the first in a century) on a group of subantarctic islands. And the snake species, named after Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash, in New Guinea.

As a 2025 University of Arizona study shows, the quest to identify every species has picked up pace in recent years. Fifteen per cent of all known species were discovered in the last 20 years.

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The human predilection for the photogenic has meant that a majority of these discoveries receive little attention beyond the scientific and conservation communities. But the wonder that is the biosphere deserves more.