Biowatch
Biowatch is a free, open-source desktop application that lets you analyze, visualize, and explore camera trap datasets entirely offline. Your sensitive wildlife data never gets uploaded to any server — everything runs locally on your computer.
New to Biowatch?
The full online manual walks you through every feature — importing data, exploring studies, annotating images, running AI models, and exporting — with step-by-step guides and screenshots.
Read the ManualWhy Biowatch?
Three things set it apart:
100% offline & private
Your research data stays on your machine — no cloud uploads, no accounts, no tracking. Built for the sensitive location data of endangered species.
Open source
Inspect the code, contribute improvements, or adapt it to your needs — built transparently by the conservation community, for the conservation community.
On-device AI
Run powerful species-identification models directly on your computer, with no internet required after setup.
Key Features
Everything from raw captures to published data:
Import from anywhere
Start from your own image folders, a Camtrap DP package, or curated public datasets from GBIF and LILA — or try the one-click demo dataset.
On-device species ID
Detect and identify animals with local AI models — SpeciesNet, MegaDetector, DeepFaune, and Manas — and pick the best fit for your region from a coverage map.
Interactive maps
See camera locations as species pie-charts, abundance markers, or density heatmaps, and filter everything to an area you draw.
Activity & trends
Compare species with daily-activity clocks, seasonal timelines, and per-deployment activity charts.
Media management
Browse, filter, and search thousands of images and videos, review AI detections, and correct bounding boxes.
Standards-based export
Publish to GBIF as a Camtrap DP package, or export your media organized into one folder per species.
About
Biowatch grew out of a simple conviction: researchers shouldn’t have to choose between modern AI tooling and keeping control of sensitive wildlife data.
Whether you’re tracking endangered species, studying behavior, or monitoring biodiversity, it turns raw camera-trap captures into clear results — on your own machine, with no cloud, no subscriptions, and no lock-in.
Installation
- Run
biowatch-setup.exe - Follow the installation wizard
- Launch Biowatch from the Start menu or desktop shortcut
- Open the
.dmgdisk image - Drag Biowatch to your Applications folder
- On first launch, right-click the app and select “Open” (required for apps from outside the App Store)
AppImage (recommended):
- Make it executable:
chmod +x Biowatch.AppImage - Run it:
./Biowatch.AppImage
Debian/Ubuntu:
- Download the
.debpackage from all releases - Install:
sudo dpkg -i Biowatch_*.deb
Ready to try it?
Biowatch is free and open source — and built in the open. Download it for Windows, macOS, or Linux, or help us keep developing it.