{"id":531306,"date":"2026-07-08T13:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531306\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T13:41:08","slug":"beyond-birds-and-mice-free-ranging-cats-eat-a-surprising-number-of-insects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/531306\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond birds and mice, free-ranging cats eat a surprising number of insects"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s pretty commonly known, and not very startling, that free-ranging cats eat birds and small rodents<\/a>. But the degree to which they eat insects might surprise you.<\/p>\n

We<\/a> are<\/a> biologists<\/a> who for many years have been trying to figure out what feral or outdoor-roaming pet cats eat outside. <\/p>\n

When domesticated cats \u2013 Felis catus \u2013 live freely in the wild or are allowed to hunt outside the homes where their owners live, they are an invasive species<\/a>, which live in every ecosystem of the world except the continent of Antarctica. We wanted to know all of the species they eat \u2013 and to what degree free-ranging cats are eating endangered or threatened species.<\/p>\n

Examining reams of research<\/p>\n

Over the past two decades, we have evaluated hundreds of scientific findings, including searching through Google Scholar<\/a> and Web of Science<\/a> using the keywords \u201ccat predation,\u201d \u201cferal cat,\u201d \u201ccat diet\u201d and \u201cFelis catus.\u201d For each item we found, whether peer-reviewed or not, we evaluated whether it contained conclusive evidence of cat diet or predation. We also reviewed each one\u2019s reference section for additional unique articles or databases pertaining to cat diet and predation, and included those in our search.<\/p>\n

Overall, we identified 533 unique publications \u2013 books, journal articles, theses and agency reports \u2013 that reported specific animal species consumed by cats. Cats\u2019 plant-eating habits are occasionally, but haphazardly, noted in studies, so we did not include them in our analysis.<\/p>\n

Our initial work focused on an overall assessment of what free-ranging cats eat around the world. Published in 2023, this paper analyzed the 533 studies on cat diet or predation events published over more than a century and found that cats ate nearly 2,100 different species<\/a> of animals, including invertebrates.<\/p>\n

Of those 2,100, the International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019s Red List of Threatened Species<\/a> listed 347 as \u201cnear threatened,\u201d \u201cvulnerable,\u201d \u201cendangered,\u201d \u201ccritically endangered\u201d or \u201cextinct\u201d in 2023. Some of the species went extinct during the many decades covered by the data.<\/p>\n

Insects and the like<\/p>\n

Most of the species cats ate were vertebrates \u2013 mostly birds, followed by mammals and reptiles. But the data also indicated that at least 7% of the species cats eat are insects and other invertebrates, particularly beetles, and less frequently crustaceans, arachnids, centipedes, snails and slugs, and millipedes.<\/p>\n

Many of the cat studies we reviewed did not report on how many individuals of a given species cats ate, so it was unclear what the total amount of insects was or how many calories cats are deriving from insects.<\/p>\n

Invertebrates make up more than 70%<\/a> of all terrestrial animal species and are important pollinators, predators and herbivores in virtually every nonmarine ecosystem. Many invertebrates are in decline globally<\/a> due to urbanization, habitat destruction, increases in both light and pesticide pollution, and climate change. So we dug deeper into the data to understand what invertebrates cats are eating<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While a little more than one-third of all the studies we analyzed included invertebrates as part of cats\u2019 diet, most of those failed to identify specific species of invertebrates. But we were able to find identifications of 148 invertebrate species.<\/p>\n

Of those, two are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature<\/a>: the Aldabran grasshopper<\/a> (Pternoscirtus aldabrae) in Seychelles and the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish<\/a> (Astacopsis gouldi), which can grow up to 13 pounds (6 kilograms). Two others are considered vulnerable: w\u0113t\u0101punga<\/a> (Deinacrida heteracantha), an insect native to New Zealand that can be about the size of a mouse, and the common yabby<\/a> (Cherax destructor), a freshwater crayfish native to southeastern Australia. One other, the Canary Islands horned beetle<\/a> (Arhopalus pinetorum), is listed as \u201cnear threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Not surprising: Cat eats mouse.
\n Julian Stratenschulte\/picture alliance via Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Effects on populations<\/p>\n

We have not found formal research evaluating how cats\u2019 eating habits affect invertebrate populations. And for many species, they are likely not as significant a factor as wide-scale pesticide use<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s possible that cats could be significant contributors to the deaths of rare species or in specific locations. <\/p>\n

Cats require a large amount of protein<\/a>, as much as one-third of their daily diet, and invertebrates are good sources of protein<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In many places, invertebrates provide an easy source of food. Whether in an urban backyard or on a remote island, cats are unlikely to turn a blind eye to available prey. And some cats may find it entertaining to chase, catch and eat insects even if they don\u2019t need their nutrition.<\/p>\n

A challenge of researching this question is that many invertebrates are relatively small, which makes direct observation in the field harder and can require more analytical approaches in the lab. And they have soft bodies, without distinguishing characteristics that could be easily recognized in scat or stomach contents.<\/p>\n

However, molecular technologies can identify species using trace amounts of DNA left in the environment<\/a> by animals. Promising new studies are beginning to identify what cats eat by analyzing the DNA found in their stomachs and scat<\/a>. That research may help explore in even more detail what cats are eating in the outdoors, and how it\u2019s affecting various species and the environment as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s pretty commonly known, and not very startling, that free-ranging cats eat birds and small rodents. But the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[85,46,141,386],"class_list":["post-531306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}