Data from: Social media highlights the overlooked impact of cats on arthropods

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 analyzed 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 analyzed >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.