Social media highlights the overlooked impact of cats on arthropods

Abstract

The severe impact of domestic cats on vertebrate biodiversity is unequivocal. However, cats are generalist predators that also hunt various invertebrate taxa, yet we are still far from understanding the impacts of these predators on arthropod populations. Here, we analysed records from social media to explore which arthropods are most preyed upon by domestic cats in urban environments. Using the search algorithms of two online platforms, iStock and TikTok, we analysed >17,000 photos and videos, which yielded 550 records of predation events by domestic cats. We examined these images to identify the orders of arthropods most frequently preyed upon by cats. We compared our findings with data from a recent global synthesis of academic papers quantifying the diet of domestic cats. In total, we recorded 14 distinct arthropod orders killed by domestic cats. Orthoptera was the most frequently preyed upon order, accounting for 20.7% of the records. Hemiptera (14.5%) and Blattodea (14.4%) were also commonly observed. Our data show that domestic cats hunt a surprisingly diverse range of arthropods in urban settings. Overall, the data collected from social media showed similarities but also some differences compared to the general patterns found in the scientific literature on the diet of domestic cats. This finding emphasizes that these different data streams are not redundant; therefore, combining them can be an effective way to thoroughly document ecological interactions in urban environments. Social media serves as a powerful and rapidly growing source of biodiversity data for ecologists and conservation biologists. Our study presents new records of arthropod predation by cats and highlights the diversity of invertebrate prey killed by domestic cats in urban settings. Together, these findings offer new insights into the neglected impacts of cats on arthropod populations.