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What is Acoustic Monitoring?
Acoustic monitoring is the use of sound recorders to track wildlife activity—capturing bird calls, bat echolocation, and other animal sounds automatically, day and night. It gives you a clearer picture of what’s happening in the environment without needing to be there in person.
Why use Acoustic Monitoring for wildlife?
Acoustic monitoring collects more consistent, long-term data than human surveys alone. It helps you track species presence, measure biodiversity, and detect changes over time—supporting better decisions, smarter resource use, and stronger evidence for funders and stakeholders.
Meet the AR5 Acoustic Monitor
The AR5 is Alato’s rugged, weatherproof acoustic recorder, built on a proven DOC design used across Aotearoa for more than a decade. Easy to deploy and trusted in the field, it’s the fastest way to start gathering reliable data to support your conservation goals.
Acoustic Monitoring for Conservation, Predator Control, and Restoration
Whether you're restoring habitats, controlling predators, or protecting native species, acoustic monitoring gives you the data to back your mahi and make confident decisions.
- Measure Impact: Detect increases in bird or bat activity over time to show your efforts are working.
- Track Species Trends: Monitor changes in native wildlife populations across seasons or years.
- Confirm Elusive Species: Detect hard-to-spot wildlife like kiwi, pekapeka (bats), or ruru even in remote or low-visibility conditions.
- Adjust Tactics: Use data to fine-tune where to place traps, restore habitat, or focus your efforts.
- Support Funding: Provide strong, clear evidence of your success to funders, stakeholders, and the community, helping with funding applications and engagement efforts.
Already doing 5-minute bird counts?
Many groups rely on 5MBC to track bird populations and collect data, but they can be limited by time, weather, and who’s available to do the count.
Acoustic monitoring complements and extends this work by recording day and night, across weeks capturing birds you might miss and building a richer, more consistent dataset.
It’s like having a bird expert in the field 24/7 without needing to be there yourself.
How It Works
- Place the AR5 at your chosen site using the preconfigured protocols (typically records for 2 to 4 weeks at a time).
- Record the Soundscape: The AR5 captures high-quality audio day and night with ultrasonic and MEMS microphones
- Analyze the Audio: Use software (some with AI support) to identify species or trends and quickly create reports of your populations.
- Make Informed Decisions: Back your restoration, trapping, or protection work with real data.
We’ll help you choose tools for analysis, and we're developing new resources to make this step faster and easier.
Common Questions
Q: Isn’t it expensive to buy these units?
A: The AR5 costs less than many camera traps and can provide more consistent species data over time. By identifying where your efforts are working or not you can avoid wasted resources and show clear results to attract further funding.
Q: Isn’t it time-consuming to analyse the audio?
A: It can be, but AI-based tools are making it easier. We recommend Avianz or Raven software to speed up analysis and will soon release our own tool to simplify this process. Training materials and guides are available from our support team.
Q: What’s involved in getting started?
A: Not much. You’ll choose a few locations, place your devices, and retrieve them a few weeks later. We’ll walk you through it.
About Alato
Alato is the official supplier of the AR5 acoustic recorder built for DOC and designed for the tough conditions of Aotearoa’s forests. We’re here to make acoustic monitoring more accessible through practical tools, training, and ongoing support.
We’re a small, local team passionate about using technology to protect our native taonga. Our goal is to support conservation work across Aotearoa by providing the right tools for the job and working closely with groups of all sizes to back their mahi on the ground.
Get in touch hello@alato.co.nz
