Alato

Last week we emerged from the shadows for the National Pekapeka Hui, and man, what a time. We’re still buzzing 😉 from a massive few days of bat-talk.

Huge thanks to the legends at Finding Franklin Bats and Auckland Councilfor pulling it all together. It’s not easy wrangling a bunch of people who spend their lives staring at trees in the dark, but you guys absolutely nailed it.

We had a great time with our two talks on bioacoustics tech and running a workshop, basically just an excuse for us to geek out about acoustics with anyone who’d listen.

The highlight, though, was definitely giving away some gear to three very deserving winners:

Pest Free Howick Ward
Catlins Bat Project
Otaua School

We can't wait to see (and hear) what you guys find!

If you're looking to get your hands on some AR5s, get in touch with [email protected] and don't forget, you can try out Alato Lab (our bat AI tool) for free to see what’s actually hiding in your audio files.
Already looking forward to the next one! 🦇✨

Try Alato Lab https://shorturl.at/Wv90e

Giveaway alert! 🤩

We’re giving away 5 AR5 acoustic monitors complete with SD cards and batteries at the National Pekapeka Hui

Want in? Come visit us at our stand to enter the draw – it’s that simple. Don’t miss your chance to get your hands on the gear and see our tech in action!

We’ll also be running a workshop and talking about the future of bioacoustic monitoring – so plenty of reason to drop by

Ben Paris - NZ Batman
Finding Franklin Bats

New Zealand has two bat species left. Two.

The long-tailed and short-tailed bat are some of our most ancient and vulnerable natives, and for years, the biggest barrier to protecting them wasn't the will to monitor, it was the sheer volume of data that nobody had time to analyse.

We built Alato Lab to change that. An AI trained on 50,000+ real New Zealand field recordings, purpose-built to process what would take a team weeks, in half a day.

This is what conservation looks like when technology actually serves the people doing the mahi.

We wrote about how we built it, and why it matters.

Read the full story

https://bit.ly/4kOsydI

We’re excited to be sponsoring the National Pekapeka Hui in Franklin next month 🦇

Finding Franklin Bats is hosting the Hui from 25–27 March at Rereteewhioi Marae in Waiuku. Registrations are now open and we’ll be there in person. If you’re working with bats, or want to, it’s going to be a great few days to get along to.

We’ll be running a hands-on workshop with our gear and chatting about where bioacoustic monitoring technology is going next.

Register here: https://events.humanitix.com/national-pekpeka-hui-2026

See you there 👋

National Pekapeka Hui 2026 This year Finding Franklin Bats will be hosting the tri-annual Pekapeka Hui, come along to hear the latest around bat conservation and protection.

Exciting news for pekapeka monitors! 🦇

Alato Lab is launching in public beta in mid February, and you're invited to be among the first to try it.

We've built software that automates the tedious work of analyzing bat recordings. After training our AI on over 50,000 files, we're ready to help you tackle your surveys. Upload your AR4 or AR5 files, and our AI scans for long-tailed and short-tailed pekapeka, turning hours of sound into clear, visual reports in minutes.

FREE beta access includes:

✅ Analysis of up to 5,000 files
✅ Automated pekapeka detection with confidence ratings
✅ Easy-to-read charts and heat maps
✅ Simple file management for large surveys

Whether you're a researcher, ecologist, or conservation professional, this is your chance to test drive the platform and help us make it even better.

Let Lab do the heavy lifting. Sign up now at https://bit.ly/3LU7XrG

Paid plans for bigger projects coming next week!

Introducing the AR5 Acoustic Monitor the new way to track and monitor wildlife.

With 4 microphones including an ultrasonic microphone the AR5 can record Bat Echolocation calls (think sonar) that we cant hear and our common native bird species.