Dataset for: Collective behaviour of the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) in response to signals of differing acoustic complexity

Abstract

This dataset supports article Currie, H.A.L., White, P.R., Leighton, T.G., & Kemp, P.S. (2021). Collective behaviour of the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) is influenced by signals of differing acoustic complexity. Behav. Process. Human driven disturbance (e.g. anthropogenic noise) can affect behaviour and physiology of individual animals, however, the disruption to groups of fish remains poorly understood. Anthropogenic noise differs in it's acoustic structure, dominant frequencies, and spectral complexity owing to a variety of sound sources, and the response of groups of fish may differ greatly, depending on the type of noise, and how it is perceived. We investigated the group responses (startle response, group swimming speed, cohesion, orientation, shoal distribution) of European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) to signals of differing acoustic complexity (sinewave tones vs octave band noise) under low (150 Hz) and high (2200 Hz) frequencies. Data concerning behavioural responses were collected through high resolution video tracking using Matlab script and can be viewed as an excel file.