Learn With Cats

Cats can teach us a great deal when we pay attention to their lives and to the places they share with people, wildlife, and communities. Questions about cats quickly become questions about population change, veterinary care, human behavior, conservation, public policy, and our relationships with the places around us.

At Kahu Pōpoki, learning brings together ʻike—knowledge and understanding—from many sources. Scientific research is important. So are years of observation, practical experience, community knowledge, and what we can see happening in real life. Each can help us understand a different part of the picture.

That means asking good questions rather than beginning with a predetermined answer. What is actually happening? Why is it happening? What factors matter most? What can we change? And how will we know whether what we did actually helped?

Learning also carries kuleana. As we understand more, we become better able to mālama—to care for and attend to—the cats, communities, wildlife, and places affected by our choices.

Learn With Cats is where Kahu Pōpoki brings evidence, lived reality, and practical approaches together.

Coexistence & CEAS

Two tools for understanding before acting.

The Coexistence Framework and Conservation Evidence & Accountability Standard (CEAS) form the foundation of how Kahu Pōpoki approaches difficult questions.

The Coexistence Framework asks what kind of management fits a particular animal, place, level of risk, and community need. It recognizes three primary settings:

PET • COMMUNITY • WILDLIFE

Within the WILDLIFE zone, enhanced protection measures can be added where the evidence, species, or location justify greater safeguards.

CEAS then asks whether the evidence supports the problem being claimed, whether a proposed action addresses the important limiting factors, and whether the expected outcome can actually be measured.

Together they help us move from:

What is happening? → What fits this place? → What should we do? → Did it work?

[Explore the Coexistence Framework]
[Explore CEAS & the 8 Conservation Questions]

Cats, Communities & Wildlife

Understand the relationships around the cat.

Cats do not live apart from everything else.

Their lives intersect with families, neighborhoods, community colonies, veterinary systems, wildlife, habitat, disease pathways, and human decisions.

Here we explore community cat population management, pet retention and abandonment, sterilization, managed feeding, behavior and roaming, toxoplasmosis and One Health, health and welfare, cats and wildlife, and the many ways those subjects connect.

The goal is to see the whole picture, rather than treating one animal, one risk, or one cause in isolation.

[Explore Cats, Communities & Wildlife]

Research, Resources & What Works

Go deeper—and look for approaches that produce results.

Here you can explore the research behind Kahu Pōpoki’s work through briefs, research summaries, fact sheets, field guides, infographics, source collections, videos, and other learning resources.

We also look at the practical question that follows the research:

What works?

That may mean preventing abandonment, expanding sterilization, improving pet recovery, managing community cats, protecting sensitive wildlife areas, or changing an approach when the evidence shows it is not producing the intended result.

The purpose of research is not simply to accumulate information. It is to help us make better choices and then learn from what happens next.

[Browse Research & Resources]
[Explore What Works]