Wholphin Facts
Wholphin Facts
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| Interesting Wholphin Facts: |
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| Wholphin can reach 12 to 22 feet in length and around 600 pounds of weight. |
| Wholphin grows very fast and reaches the size of one-year-old dolphin only few months after birth. |
| Wholphin has dark grey skin (perfect blend of light grey skin of bottlenose dolphin and black skin of false killer whale). |
| Wholphin has whale-like eyes and large body that is in between the size of false killer whale and bottlenose dolphin. |
| Bottlenose dolphin has 88 teeth, false killer whale has 44 teeth, while wholphin has 66 teeth - an average number of teeth of its parents. |
| Wholphin is a carnivore. Its diet is based on the fish such as herring and capelin. |
| Word "wholphin" refers to the name of the parents of this animal: wh(ale) + (d)olphin. Despite its name, false killer whale is member of the family of oceanic dolphins, just like the bottlenose dolphin. |
| The first born and the oldest known wholphin is Kekaimalu. This female wholphin was born in 1985 in the Sea Life Park in Hawaii. |
| Female bottlenose dolphin was kept in the same tank with male false killer whale, resulting in the accidental creation of the first wholphin. |
| Female wholphin is fertile and able to produce new generation of wholphins after mating with dolphins. Produced offspring is more dolphin-like (it is 3/4 bottlenose dolphin and 1/4 false killer whale) due to breeding with bottlenose dolphin, but it is still much larger than the bottlenose dolphin. |
| Wholphin needs to reach mental maturity and develop proper maternal instincts (around the age of 9 years) in order to become successful parent. Researchers believe that the lack of maternal care and nursing can result in the premature death of newly born wholphins, which was probably the case with the first two calves of Kekaimalu. |
| Baby wholphin depends on the mother's milk until the age of 9 months. After that period, it starts to consume fish. Young wholphin is weaned at the age of one to two years. |
| Only 2 wholphins currently exist in the captivity: Kekaimalu and her daughter Kawili Kai. |
| These two wholphins can be seen in the Sea Life Park in Hawaii, as a part of regular tour in the park. |
| Researchers believe that an average lifespan of wholphin is around 40 years. |
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