Getting Started

Before you can get started with Agouti, there are several steps to complete. First you create an account, then apply for a new project and finally receive access.

Creating an account

Navigate to https://www.agouti.eu.
Select your preferred language at the top right.
Click ‘Register’ to create an account.
Fill in the form, choose a sufficiently strong password of at least 8 characters.
Read the GDPR statement and check the box if you agree. Agouti minimizes the storage of personal data, and does not use any trackers or third-party cookies.

Your account is now set up and ready to use. However, by design, you will not yet have access to a project. To apply for a project, please follow the steps below.

Applying for a project

Agouti is available to all individuals and organizations that works with camera traps. We facilitate academic, non-commercial and government projects free of charge. Commercial organizations can try out Agouti free of charge, but are expected to make a contribution to the development and hosting costs if they plan to keep using Agouti. Contact us to discuss option. To apply for a project:

From the Agouti homepage or directly from your email write a message to agouti@wur.nl. Please include whether you are working in a commercial or non-profit setting.
You will receive a response with an invitation link to your newly created project. Please use the link and notify agouti@wur.nl when that’s done.
The admins will make you PI on the project. You can now enter the project from your personal dashboard and get started.

Setting up your project

Your project is completely empty at this point. We recommend taking some time to set up some initial settings that will help you to get started.

Project settings

Log in and enter your project. Go to the project setting in the left hand navigation.
The default title is not very descriptive. Please update it to reflect your project’s subject. For example: ‘Predator densities in Bardiya National Park, Nepal’. This text is shown on the public pages, if your project is set to public.
Optional: set a location for your project. This can be anywhere so doesn’t have to match your actual study area. This location is used to plot your project on a public map, if your project is set to public.
Default UTC offset: this sets a timezone for your project. Set it to prevent having to enter this for each deployment manually. If your location observes daylight saving time you can adjust the timezone to match. For example: if you run your cameras in Western European summertime, you can set the offset to +2. The description for each timezone are indicative only, and not exhaustive.
Description: write a few lines about your project. We recommend to include: the aim of the study, the sampling strategy and the location. For example: ‘We study the community composition of predators in Bardiya National Park, Nepal. A permanent grid of 50 cameras, spaced 1 km apart, was installed. Each camera was checked monthly.’ This text is shown on the public pages, if your project is set to public.
Image: here, you can upload an image that is shown on the project’s tile. This image is shown on the public pages, if your project is set to public.
Restricted images: this setting controls whether your project’s assets can be accessed publicly by using their URLs. When checked, image URLs in data exports/published data will not be accessible to external users and require authentication by an user that have access to the project. Sequences that contain one or more framed with humans always require authentication.
Restricted project: this setting controls whether your project’ s name, description and location can be shown publicly. When checked, your project will be hidden from the public homepage and portals on agouti.eu.
Restricted locations: This controls the visibility of locations by users in our project. When unchecked, deployment locations can be seen by all project members. When checked, photo processors and volunteers will only see the locations for their own deployments.
Owner: set this to the person that is responsible for the project.
PI: set this to the person that is coordinating the project. Often the same as the owner.
Optional: set this to the organization running the project. Contact agouti@wur.nl if your organization is not listed.

Sampling design

The optional fields allow you to define your project’s sampling design in terms of camtrap-dp definitions.

Annotation

Sequence cut-off: this setting controls the division of images into sequences. The time difference between subsequent images is used. IF the time difference is equal to or smaller than this cut-off, the images are put in the same sequence. If the time difference is greater than this setting, a new sequence is started. The default setting of 120 seconds work well for most projects. Should you wish to change it, please contact agouti@wur.nl. Changing this setting does not affect existing data and is only applied to uploads made after the change.
Automatic annotation: here, you can select an AI model to automatically process your deployments. After selecting a model, a button ‘Annotate by AI’ will show up for each deployment listed on the Annotate page. For more details, please see the dedicated Reference automatic annotation page.

Species

The main taxonomic list we used is the Catalogue of Life. You can add class, order, family, genus, species and subspecies from this main list to your project, making them available for selection during annotation. Including higher taxonomic levels is helpful for hard to distinguish groups of species, such as rodents, or allows you to quickly process species groups that are not of interest to your project. If you find a species is missing form the main list, please contact agouti@wur.nl and mention the link to CoL page.

Behaviour

Optional: Here, you can define behaviours for your project. Each behaviour has a name and description. These behaviours are available during annotation. You can select none, one or multiple behaviours for each observations.

Individuals

Optional: To keep track of individual animals, add them here. An individual always has a name, species and description.

Inviting your collaborators

In the user management you can see who has access to your project, and assign roles to each user. For a description of roles available please see roles & permissions. Access to projects in Agouti is granted by invitation only. As principal investigator or project coordinator you can invite members by following these steps:

Go to user management and copy the link under project access.
Send the link to your collaborator, ask them to request access by using the link and to notify you when they’ve done so.
The request is now shown in your project’s user management. You can accept or reject the request. After accepting, the default role is volunteer. Adjust this if necessary by editing the user in the list of members.
When a collaborator leaves your project, remember to revoke their access. Do this by clicking ‘Delete’ in the list of members.