We've partnered with the Karamū River Catchment Collective, our first catchment group partner, to expand our bat survey across nearly 97,000 hectares of the Greater Karamū and part of the Ngaruroro catchment. With our Echoes Around Te Mata and Anaroa Road projects also operating in the catchment, three bat projects now come together to explore the region and extend our search into the Heretaunga Plains. At its heart, this is citizen science: local people setting out detectors, discovering the bats on their doorstep and contributing to conservation. Every night of recordings helps inform predator trapping, river and wetland restoration, and long-term biodiversity monitoring, while revealing how well connected the landscape is for bats.

Explore the page what our detectors pick up.

Our approach:

Unlike long-term monitoring at a single site, the Karamū project runs in phases, spreading detectors across the catchment and building a picture of bat activity over time. Each phase has specific deliverables, with findings shared with the local community. We begin by Establishing which bat species are present, then Understanding where and when they're active. From there, we Build Capacity through shared knowledge and Monitor activity and change over time. These findings will lay the groundwork for future specialist projects, from Identifying threats and establishing long-term monitoring sites to Cross-site comparisons and standardised reporting. Ultimately, this work will help us Act and Innovate, developing new survey techniques and guiding practical conservation efforts across the catchment.

This page follows the project as the work unfolds, sharing our objectives, field notes, maps and emerging insights. Right now, we're in Phase 1: Establish.

Follow along as we begin to uncover what's happening across the Karamū catchment, or get in touch if you're in the catchment and would like to get involved as a Pekapeka Patroller.