The Andean Mountain cat eats the human equivalent of 30 pounds of food at one sitting. A human eating a normal meal would have to eat 28 standard meals at one sitting to match the appetite and eating abilities of the Andean cat. Yes, I know some people eat enormous meals but even those people are not in the same league as the Andean cat.
It’s extraordinary to realise that the small wild cat species can eat an enormous amount of food at one sitting. They have to in order to preserve their food to eat it all and survive.
An example would be the Andean Mountain cat weighing 4.5 kg (10 pounds) observed to eat an entire mountain viscacha – a small rabbit-like mountain rodent – weighing about 0.8 kg (1.7 pounds) at a single sitting. The cat had caught the prey animal and simply ate it in one go leaving behind a one leg and a paw. The Andean cat had consumed the skull, teeth and the entire body including some fur. The weight of the prey animal represented about 15% of the weight of the Andean cat eating it.
RELATED: Andean mountain cat (2022) – click this link to see a full page on this rare, endangered, small cat species living in a cold climate. The mountain viscacha is an major part of its diet.
Human equivalent
Out of curiosity, we can scale up this eating feat to a human scale. If the average weight of the American man is 196 pounds, which I am told it is, 15% of 196 is around 29 pounds. So, for an American man to match an Andean cat’s vast appetite at one meal, he would have to eat almost 30 pounds of food. What would that represent on a plate?
I’m told that the average meal weighs about 500 grams. This is just over 1 pound. On that basis, for a human to match the Andean cat’s feeding, they would have to eat 28 meals at one sitting, one after the other, at the same time. Pretty amazing don’t you think?
P.S. Obviously, I an generalising and the amount will vary from person to person and place to place. I have chosen an American man as they eat lots 🙂 . The difference in terms of end result is that the Andean cat is not overweight while in the US and UK (to name a couple of countries) there is an obesity problem for humans and their cats.
RELATED: Andean mountain cat might use its decaying faeces to keep warm
