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-min acoustic exchange between the broadcast of a recorded contact call, known as a whup/throp, with call respon...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt56q667vb 2024-02-04T10:01:04+01:00 Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. McCowan, Brenda Hubbard, Josephine Walker, Lisa Sharpe, Fred Frediani, Jodi Doyle, Laurance 2023-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56q667vb unknown eScholarship, University of California qt56q667vb https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56q667vb public Bioacoustic playback Communication Humpback whale Turn-taking Vocal matching Animals Humans Female Vocalization Animal Cetacea Acoustics article 2023 ftcdlib 2024-01-08T19:06:07Z 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-min 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 Twains 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 key considerations 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Humpback Whale Alaska University of California: eScholarship |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Bioacoustic playback Communication Humpback whale Turn-taking Vocal matching Animals Humans Female Vocalization Animal Cetacea Acoustics |
spellingShingle |
Bioacoustic playback Communication Humpback whale Turn-taking Vocal matching Animals Humans Female Vocalization Animal Cetacea Acoustics McCowan, Brenda Hubbard, Josephine Walker, Lisa Sharpe, Fred Frediani, Jodi Doyle, Laurance Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
topic_facet |
Bioacoustic playback Communication Humpback whale Turn-taking Vocal matching Animals Humans Female Vocalization Animal Cetacea Acoustics |
description |
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-min 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 Twains 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 key considerations 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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McCowan, Brenda Hubbard, Josephine Walker, Lisa Sharpe, Fred Frediani, Jodi Doyle, Laurance |
author_facet |
McCowan, Brenda Hubbard, Josephine Walker, Lisa Sharpe, Fred Frediani, Jodi Doyle, Laurance |
author_sort |
McCowan, Brenda |
title |
Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
title_short |
Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
title_full |
Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
title_fullStr |
Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an Alaskan humpback whale. |
title_sort |
interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: conversing with an alaskan humpback whale. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56q667vb |
genre |
Humpback Whale Alaska |
genre_facet |
Humpback Whale Alaska |
op_relation |
qt56q667vb https://escholarship.org/uc/item/56q667vb |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1789966702234042368 |