Data from: A bioacoustic record of a conservancy in the Mount Kenya ecosystem

Environmental degradation is a major threat facing ecosystems around the
world. In order to determine ecosystems in need of conservation
interventions, we must monitor the biodiversity of these ecosystems
effectively. Bioacoustic approaches offer a means to monitor ecosystems of
interest in a sustainable manner. In this work we show how a bioacoustic
record from the Dedan Kimathi University wildlife conservancy, a
conservancy in the Mount Kenya ecosystem, was obtained in a cost effective
manner. A subset of the dataset was annotated with the identities of bird
species present since they serve as useful indicator species. These data
reveal the spatial distribution of species within the conservancy and also
point to the effects of major highways on bird populations. This dataset
will provide data to train automatic species recognition systems for birds
found within the Mount Kenya ecosystem. Such systems are necessary if
bioacoustic approaches are to be employed at the large scales necessary to
influence wildlife conservation measures.