Data from: Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: “Conversing” with an Alaskan humpback whale

Here we report on a rare and opportunistic acoustic turn-taking with an
adult female humpback whale, known as Twain, in Southeast Alaska. Post hoc
acoustic and statistical analyses of a 20-minute acoustic exchange between
the broadcast of a recorded contact call, known as a ’whup/throp’, with
call responses by Twain revealed an intentional human-whale acoustic (and
behavioral) interaction. Our results show that Twain participated both
physically and acoustically in three phases of interaction (Phase 1:
Engagement, Phase 2: Agitation, Phase 3: Disengagement),
independently determined by blind observers reporting on surface behavior
and respiratory activity of the interacting whale. A close examination of
both changes to the latency between Twain’s calls and the temporal
matching to the latency of the exemplar across phases indicated that Twain
was actively engaged in the exchange during Phase 1 (Engagement), less so
during Phase 2 (Agitation), and disengaged during Phase 3 (Disengagement).
These results, while preliminary, point to several   for
effective playback design, namely the importance of salient, dynamic and
adaptive playbacks, that should be utilized in experimentation with whales
and other interactive nonhuman species.