Yes, for all the above is probably the answer. We know that domestic cats are scavengers because all their life they eat ‘dead’ animals in the commercially prepared food that we give them. Domestic cats allowed outside sometimes catch and eat live animals. Not all do. My cat can go from killing and eating a mouse to immediately eating Hills Dental Care dry cat food.
For the remaining small cats – the small wild cat species – the answer is probably also yes but we don’t have sufficient information even today after many years of knowing about all the small wild cat species to say with know for sure that they all scavenge. However, common sense dictates that they do bearing in mind the domestic cat inherits its scavenging from their wild cat ancestor in combination with 10k years of domestication.
We have some clear examples of small wild cat scavenging. The kodkod (guina) scavenges. A scientist offered packaged chicken parts and a live chicken to a wild kodkod and it preferred the chicken parts. This is despite the fact that kodkods are chicken coop raiders. The often kill all the chickens in coops in a single raid.
The Andean cat was observed to eat a dead mountain viscacha as bait. This is a small rabbit-like rodent and a major prey animal for the Andean cat.
The leopard cat (aka Asiatic leopard cat) seems to be fussier. When offered both live and dead rats in traps the leopard cat shunned the latter. This may have been because the cat is motivated to attack on hearing the noise of prey. It is unclear whether the leopard cat scavenges. However, a study (Spatial Distribution and Dietary Niche Breadth of Leopard Cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) Inhabiting Margalla Hills National Park, Pakistan) concluded that “The other wild prey species eaten were small Indian mongoose, grey mongoose, Asian palm squirrel and Cape hare. The wild boar was most probably scavenged by the leopard cat. Birds, insects and snails also contributed in the diet of leopard cat.”
I don’t have an awful lot of information on the small wild cat species scavenging at this time. But it is likely that they all do when needs must as free food is hard to pass up in the words of James Sanderson and Patrick Watson in their book Small Wild Cats.
P.S. I am reminded that humans scavenge all their lives and almost always eat in no other way. In Asia they sometimes eat live animals such as cut up live octopus. The Asians have a different attitude towards animals than Westerners. For shock value some television game shows such as Fear Factor, Survivor and I’m a Celebrity feature segments where contestants must eat live animals including spiders, cockroaches.
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