Monday, October 25, 2010

is it a dolphin? or a whale?

What happens when you take this:
And this:

You get this:
A Wholphin!


The first captive wolphin (whale/dolphin) hybrid occurred in captivity in 1985 where a female bottlenose dolphin and a male false killer whale shared a pool. False killer whales are actually members of the dolphin family The Wolphin's size, colour and shape are intermediate between the parent species. Named Kekaimalu, she has 66 teeth - intermediate between a Bottlenose (88 teeth) and False Killer Whale (44 teeth). The Wholphin proved fertile when she gave birth to a calf sired by a Bottlenose Dolphin; the calf was three quarters dolphin/one quarter Whale and thus looks more like a dolphin. Despite being fertile, Kekaimalu did not mother the calf (this is not uncommon in captive dolphins and was probably not related to her being a hybrid), but it was successfully hand-reared.

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