The first wholphin in the United States and the first to survive was Kekaimalu, born at Sea Life Park in Hawaii on May 15, 1985; her name means "from the peaceful ocean".

They are intelligent, highly social, and can be trained to do complex tasks; shared traits of false killer whales and bottlenose dolphins alike.

Captive wholphins have been observed to be playful and show a great deal of curiosity about their surroundings, the same as bottlenose dolphins.

[citation needed] Although natural sightings are improbable due to the differences in habitat preference and social structure between the parent species, this is not impossible.

For example, wholphins do have more teeth than bottlenose dolphins but fewer than false killer whales on average, showing their hybrid nature.