1. Invasive Species Lesson 3 Free-ranging Cats and Dogs
Credits: Image of Feral Cat By Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Image of Feral dogs by 27-Yerevan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,

2. Kam na mauri! What are we going to learn today?
What are free-ranging cats and dogs?.
The problems they cause to our people, our agriculture and our natural environment.
Where the animals came from and how they arrived in our country.
What can you do?
Credits: Cat image 1 courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC 

3. What is a free-ranging animal?
A free-ranging animal is an animal that is not confined to a yard of house.
They are allowed to move anywhere they want freely.
Credits: Image of Feral Cat By Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Image of Feral dogs by 27-Yerevan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
They include feral animals that were once domesticated but has since returned to the wild.
These animals include dogs and cats.

4. Where did these animals come from?
Dogs were introduced to Oceania around 3,300 years. They were introduced (along with pigs, chickens and Pacific rats) for both companionship and food as they settled across the region. 
Humans, cats and dogs have co-existed for a very long time. Cats and dogs are valued companions and a source of wellbeing for owners.
As a result, cats and dogs can now be found almost everywhere across the globe.  
Credits: Image of Republic of Kiribati Flag courtesy of wikicommons (Public domain), Unknown author Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Cat 2 photo by unnamed author - Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Dog 1 photo courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC 

5. Problems caused by free-ranging Cats
Cats prey on birds and small mammals as well as reptiles, and amphibians on Pacific islands. They have been involved in at least 14% of all bird, mammal and reptile extinctions.
Cats are also a threat to public health. They are carriers of a parasite that harms humans.
The parasite enters people through eating of contaminated undercooked meat.
Credits (Top to bottom): Cat image 2 courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Bird image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Children image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Eggs in next image courtesy of unnamed author - License: CC0 Public Domain

6. Problems caused by free-ranging Dogs
Free-ranging Dogs have been reported as being a significant threat to public health and safety.
As well as causing injury to people as a result of bites and attacks, they also carry diseases.
They are a public nuisance because of the barking noise and fighting especially at night.
Free-roaming dogs are also an animal health and welfare issue. They face high mortality, malnutrition, starvation, disease, and abuse.
They tend to be aggressive and wander in packs. 
Credits (Top to bottom): Image of feral dog 1 courtesy of wikicommons -1024px-Feral_Dog - commons.wikimedia.orgwikiFileFeral_Dog - CC BY-SA 3.0, Image of feral dog 2 courtesy of wikicommons -1024px-Stray_dogs_from_Kozhikode,_Kerala,_India - CC BY-SA 3.0

7. Free-ranging Cats and Dogs Management
Promote responsible pet ownership to reduce the number of free-ranging cats and dogs.
Encourage people not to feed free-ranging cats and dogs and reduce access to household food waste.
Educate people not to abandon pets.
Establish cat and dog shelters.
Credits: Dog cartoon image courtesy of solargaria at FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Cat cartoon image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net, House 1 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, House 2 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC

8. Activity Time! Poster Design
Credits: Cat3 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC 

9. Poster Design Instructions
You will be grouped into groups of 2-3.
You will be given 20mins to complete a poster with one or more of the following themes:
Do not abandon your pets!
Do not feed free-ranging cats and dogs!
Reduce food wastage!
You can draw, colour and write your messages on the poster.
You have 20mins for the design.
Credits: Cat4 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC 

10. Activity Time! Poster Gallery Walk
Credits:
Teacher to ask students to put up their posters and to have time for everyone to have a look at their friends’ posters. If there is no time, teacher can decide to have the posters put up later and leave them up for a few days so the students can view at their own leisure.

11. What we have learnt today
A free-ranging animal is an animal that is not confined to a yard of house.
They include feral animals such as cats and dogs that were once domesticated but has since returned to the wild.
Cats and dogs were introduced as companions for humans.
Free-ranging cats and dogs are a threat to public and human safety as well as the natural environment.
Responsible pet-ownership and setting up of cat and dog shelters are some of the best ways to manage these animals.
Credits: Cat image 1 courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC 

12. See you next time! Tekeraoi am bong!
Credits: Image courtesy of arztsamui at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

13. References
Australia aims to cull 2 million feral cats: cats
Centred for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
Dogs on the loose causing havoc in the Cooks: causing-havoc-in-the-cooks
Gerhold R. W. and Jessup D. A. (2013). Zoonotic Diseases Associated with Free-Roaming Cats. Zoonoses and Public Health 60, pp
Global Invasive Species Database (GISD):
Guam struggles to deal with island’s 25,000 stray dogs: roam-on-guam-strain-resources/
Medina F. M., Bonnaud E., Vidal E., Tershy B. R., Zavaleta E. S., Donlan C. J., Keitt B. S., Le Corre M., Horwath S. V., Nogales M. (2011). A global review of the impacts of invasive cats on island endangered vertebrates. Global Change Biology 17, pp. 3503– 3510.
Pappas G., Roussos N. and Falagas M. E. (2009). Toxoplasmosis snapshots: Global status of Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence and implications for pregnancy and congenital toxoplasmosis. International Journal for Parasitology 39, pp. 1385–1394.
Torrey E. F. and Yolken R. H. (2013). Toxoplasma oocysts as a public health problem. Trends in Parasitology, Vol. 29, No. 8.
Traditional hunters and western science join forces in the fight against feral cats: news/2015/oct/27/traditional-hunters-and-western-science-join-forces-in-the-fight-against-feral-cats

14. Image Credits
Slide 1 and 3: Feral Cat Image By Brocken Inaglory - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Feral dogs image by 27-Yerevan - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Slide 2: Cat image 1 courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 4: Image of Republic of Kiribati Flag courtesy of wikicommons (Public domain), Unknown author Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Cat 2 photo by unnamed author - Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Dog Image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 5: Cat image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Bird image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Children image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, Eggs in next image courtesy of unnamed author - License: CC0 Public Domain Slide 6: Image of feral dog courtesy of wikicommons -1024px-Feral_Dog - commons.wikimedia.orgwikiFileFeral_Dog - CC BY-SA 3.0, Image of stray dogs courtesy of wikicommons -1024px-Stray_dogs_from_Kozhikode,_Kerala,_India - CC BY-SA 3.0 Slide 7: Dog cartoon image courtesy of solargaria at FreeDigitalPhotos.net, Cat cartoon image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net, House 1 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC, House 2 image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 8: Cat image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 9: Cat image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 10: Dog image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 11: Cat image courtesy of unnamed author - License: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC Slide 12: Image courtesy of arztsamui at FreeDigitalPhotos.net