Data and code to reproduce analyses from "Evaluating the influencers of acoustic indices in a zoo soundscape"

To validate their suitability for these applications, it is important to understand how different sounds in the environment affect them. Zoos have unique soundscapes with anthropogenic sounds such as human voices and mechanical noises often prevalent alongside high levels of animal-produced sounds; however, the influence of these sounds on acoustic indices in zoos has yet to be studied.

This study investigates how different sound types recorded in aviaries at Chester Zoo in 2019 and 2020 affected three widely used acoustic indices: the acoustic complexity index (ACI), the acoustic entropy index (H), and the normalised difference soundscape index (NDSI). All three indices increased with avian vocalisations; H and ACI increased with human voices but only H increased with non-vocal anthrophonic sounds; ACI and NDSI increased with biophonic sounds; and NDSI increased with wind noise, while ACI and H decreased with wind noise.