Setting Up Your Acccount


Before you get started making projects, you’ll likely need to configure some things in your account, including adding your users and animals. 

 

Adding Users

One of the first things you’ll likely want to do is to add other users to your ZooMonitor system. There are two types of users in ZooMonitor: Observers and Admin Users. Choosing which type of user profile to create depends on what actions you’d like to provide the user.  If you’d like to create a profile for someone that will just be recording data in the ZooMonitor app, you’ll need to create an Observer profile. If you want to give someone access to your Admin area where they’ll be able to create and edit projects, add users, and export and analyze data, you’ll need to create an Admin User profile for them. 

Observer Admin User
  • Record observations
  • Create projects
  • Add new animals and users
  • Create reports
  • Export data

 

TIP: You’ll likely want to also create an Observer profile for your Admin Users, allowing them to sign into the app under their profile name.

 

Adding Animals

Once you’ve set up your users, you’ll next want to set up your animals.  Before adding animals to your account, you’ll first need to add the species for the animals you’ll be adding.  Once you’ve added your species in the Configuration section of your admin area, you’re ready to add your animals.

There are two types of animals in ZooMonitor: Individuals and Groups.  If the animals you’re planning to observe are individually identifiable and you can record their behavior as a focal subject, then you’ll add those animals as Individuals.  When you need to observe animals that aren’t individually identifiable or in large groups that make observations of a single focal subject challenging, you can observe them as a Group.  When you record data on a Group in ZooMonitor, you’ll be able to input the number of animals engaged in a given behavior.

 

Configuring an Ethogram (optional)

If you are using a consistent list of defined behaviors (i.e., Ethogram), you can save yourself some time by adding those behaviors to your account in the Ethogram section.  You can create multiple Ethograms for different taxa, or for different aspects of behavior (e.g.; general behavior, shade use, posture, social proximity, etc.).