Pokémon Biology: The Jungle

By Band. Released: 2022/10/18.

Introduction

Hi there! Welcome back to one more installment of Pokémon Biology! This time we're covering the tropical rainforest, also known as the jungle! Technically, jungles and tropical rainforests are different things, and because the term "jungle" does not refer to a specific biome, I will be using "tropical rainforest" or just "rainforest" here. With that out of the way, what constitutes a tropical rainforest anyway? Well, some characteristics you can look for in a rainforest are: warm temperatures no lower than 64°F (18°C), usually staying between 68°F (20°C) and 77°F (25°C), very high precipitation and consequently humidity levels (sometimes reaching 10m of rainfall during a single year), a lot of tall trees that form a canopy (sort of like a roof), broad-leafed plants, and a soil with poor nutrients.

Rainforests are known for their extremely diverse fauna and flora, and assuming them to have very fertile soil would be reasonable, but rainfall causes all the nutrients to wash away in a process we call leaching, and the soil is just generally hydrophobic (basically "waterproof") due to the high concentrations of aluminum, iron, and clay in it. But this problem is circumvented by the huge amount of organic matter that covers the soil: we're talking leaf litter, seeds, flowers, fruits, feces, and even carcasses. All this organic matter is consumed by Pokémon like Wimpod and Morelull and is transformed back into inorganic matter such as vitamins and minerals for the plants in a process called decomposition. This process is also accelerated by the high temperature and humidity of the rainforest. This way, even though the soil is poor in nutrients, plants can absorb them directly from decomposed matter around them.

With that rambling done, let's get straight to what y'all are here for: the Pokémon!

Whenever you think of the Doctor and Nurse classes in the Pokémon world, the first Pokémon that come to mind are Chansey, maybe Blissey, right? Well, Torracat has become increasingly popular with medical staff and rescue workers due to some new research made on it. It was discovered its saliva has antimicrobial and antiseptic qualities, being able to heal wounds up to five times faster than normal medicine and even prevent scars from deep cuts from severe car and plane accidents. It's commercialized under a spray bottle, but in emergency situations, it can be applied directly by Torracat licking the wound. It's not the safest way to use it, since it may also contain some undesired bacteria, but it's way better than nothing. If a patient has a very big wound that won't stop bleeding using only Torracat's saliva and they are in risk of dying of blood loss, the medical professional can order Torracat to cauterize the wound using its fire bell. With proper training, Torracat can achieve extremely precise control of its bell's temperature. It hurts and the risk of infection increases, but the wound is closed quickly, and the bacterial growth can be prevented if saliva is applied immediately after.

These discoveries have made Torracat not only popular with medical staff but also with Pokémon Rangers that patrol the area around Mt. Lanakila. Brave hikers that try to scale the icy mountain may be ambushed by wild Sneasel and get severely hurt by even just a single Sneasel attack. Torracat that work in this field go through special hearing and smelling training and can identify a Sneasel from far away. They alert the Ranger, who generally also has a Pokémon capable of rescuing people who can't walk, such as Stoutland, and rush to the scene.

As you would expect from it eventually evolving into Incineroar, wild Torracat are not as nearly as well behaved as trained Torracat. They are known to steal from other Pokémon like Liepard and even their own species. They have no problem engaging in fights for territory with other Torracat in the rainforest, which sometimes leads to small forest fires and a big, charred pile of what once were lush trees. The winner sears its paw print in the nearby tree trunks.

Endothermy is a condition in which the Pokémon can maintain a constant body temperature with its own metabolic functions alone without the need of external heat sources. Slakoth, though a mammal, is a different story. For some unknown reason, Slakoth has evolved to spend as little energy as possible. This means moving extremely slowly, sleeping a lot, and most importantly, having a very low metabolic rate. Endotherms are capable of maintaining a consistent body temperature because they are constantly metabolizing sugars and fat from their food. Breaking down sugars and fats requires a lot of energy, so during that process heat is released as a byproduct. This makes the Pokémon emit heat and gives it the ability to keep itself warm. Slakoth is a very interesting case, as its metabolic functions are so low, its body can't even resort to shivering, something we do when our body temperature drops and we're at risk. This means that even though Slakoth is a mammal, it still depends partially on ambient temperatures and has to bask to warm itself up.

Citizens from Black City in the Unova region constantly have trouble sleeping due to the city's increasing population of young trainers attracted to the Black Tower challenge. The city's growth comes with a myriad of problems like increased traffic, new construction sites, and general noise and light pollution. As a way to combat this, a company started shipping Slakoth from Hoenn to Unova, and they became popular pets for their ability to make people drowzy just by looking at them. If that's not enough to make the owner sleepy, Slakoth can also use Yawn and Slack Off, which are sure to get the owner a good night's sleep. Studies show that this practice, if used for way too long, can have undesired side effects, such as extended sleep (typically more than 10 hours for healthy adults and more than 12 hours for teenagers), drowziness during the day despite sleeping the necessary amount of time, and even effects seen in sleep deprivation have been documented, such as irritation, confusion, and fatigue. Researchers are afraid this may lead to a "sleep epidemic", where the population becomes addicted to Slakoth's abilities and stops functioning normally. Alternatives like Hypnosis therapy from local Munna are being studied as an alternative, though.

Toucannon may seem grumpy on the outside, but in a competition to see who has the funniest sleeping position, this bird Pokémon would most definitely win! Toucannon sleeps with its head tilted back almost 180 degrees, with the tip of its beak touching the base of the tail. Even though its beak is made from a very light material, it's still huge, almost the same size as the body of the Pokémon itself, if not bigger. This would make sleeping in a position where the beak's weight isn't supported very stressful for Toucannon. Not only that, it's believed Toucannon does this to prevent excessive heat loss from its beak. For some time it was assumed that Toucannon's beak had no blood vessels, but once it was discovered it was capable of shooting pressurized seeds and even small rocks from its beak, more research was made and it was confirmed that blood vessels were needed to carry the gas inside Toucannon's body to inside its beak so the Pokémon could build up pressure and release afterwards.

We have touched on thermoregulation on our last entry with Slakoth, and here it is just as important to the Pokémon's survival. Because Toucannon's beak can reach such high temperatures (up to 212°F or 100°C!), its body evolved so the Pokémon could shed all this excessive heat, thus the large surface area of its beak. After using attacks that require large amounts of energy, like Beak Blast, Seed Bomb, and Overheat, Toucannon's body gets extremely hot, to the point where it even smells like that one burnt turkey from last Thanksgiving. That's when the blood vessels in its beak come into play. A process called vasodilation happens, where the blood vessels dilate and direct most of the blood flow to the beak, which thanks to its large surface area can release a lot of heat at once. This allows Toucannon to maintain a steady body temperature and not literally overheat itself to death.

Art by Albatross.

Noivern stands out as the only leaf-nosed bat among all Pokémon, getting that name from the detailed and delicate form its nose has. It's believed this complex shape aids Noivern in echolocation and finding fruit at night, when it is the most active. Another interesting aspect of its biology is Noivern's diet: currently, most Noivern seen in the wild are strictly frugivores, meaning they survive on a diet consisting of only Berries (especially Nanab, Pinap, Hondew, and Payapa) and sometimes nectar and pollen. But there have been cases of Noivern preying on Bug Pokémon like Butterfree and Swadloon, which implies these Pokémon have a more diverse diet than we may think! Some scientists think Noivern prey on Bug Pokémon because they don't get enough protein and fat from the Berries they eat.

Recently, police have been using Noivern as a way to deter protesters and criminal organizations. Noivern is capable of producing beams of ultrasonic sound waves from its ears, which can be aimed directly at a target and cause severe pain and disorientation and can even make the target faint. The policemen generally only need about two Noivern on the scene. One will use Screech followed by the other one using Uproar, which alone is enough to take out a large crowd, but if needed, a third Noivern can be called upon to use Boomburst to get rid of all targets for good. These Pokémon are very commonly used in Hau'oli City and all around Ula'ula island, where Team Skull likes to gather to bother Alolan citizens. Since all of Team Skull members are young adults, Noivern can emit an ultra-high frequency blast around 20kHz, the highest range at which people in their 20s can hear. As we grow older, the frequency spectrum we can hear gradually narrows down, meaning older citizens can't hear frequencies starting at 20Hz but also can't hear ones too close to 20kHz. This makes sure they're not affected.

Clocking in at a pretty impressive 1.9m, Yanmega is big. Like, really big for a bug. Even by Pokémon standards, it only falls behind five Pokémon: Mega Scizor, Golisopod, Buzzwole, Scolipede, and Centiskorch, and it's only 10cm shorter than the former two. Yanmega is part of the previously thought to be extinct genus Meganeura, which roamed around the same time as Pokémon like Kabutops and Lileep did, so 300 million years ago, in an era we call Late Carboniferous. Yanmega's place in the evolutionary tree is a very tricky topic among biologists, as when comparing it with fossils of ancestors, really, not much has changed. Its ancestors were bigger (almost 5 meters!), probably had a more neutral color palette with browns and greys, and that's it. Same ecological niche, same structures, and very similar habitat, with Yanmega now preferring less open spaces, probably because it has shrunk in size.

This means some biologists like to classify Yanmega as a "living fossil", much like we see with Relicanth. Of course, there's no such thing as a living fossil. These Pokémon were never extinct and still went through evolutionary processes, as they are never free from the pressure of constantly having to adapt to new Pokémon and other factors in their habitats. The most probable reason as to why Yanmega hasn't changed much is because it's already extremely good in the ecological niche it occupies, being an incredible predator, with only very few Pokémon being able to hunt it. It's insanely strong, aggressive, and territorial, being capable of tearing apart its prey's head with a single Air Slash or cause permanent internal injuries by using Bug Buzz. Torracat and Noivern would never even dream of trying to invade a Yanmega territory, despite their type effectiveness. Another interesting aspect about Yanmega is its flight abilities. It's capable of propelling itself in six directions! Up, down, forwards, backwards, left and right. It also has incredible control over its flight and speed, being able to stop midflight despite being able to reach over 200mph linearly, as fast as a Braviary diving!

A long time ago, Dewpider evolved to live partially on land and partially on water. Well, actually it's more like 90% on water and 10% on land, where it eventually comes out to search for food before returning to the pools in Brooklet Hill. It's still quite intriguing for biologists how Dewpider has adapted so well to living underwater, since other Bug-type Pokémon that also hang around bodies of water like Surskit and Wimpod never actually do anything underwater. Surskit only comes out after it rains and prefers shallow pools instead of the deep pools Dewpider chooses to live in, and Wimpod is extremely skiddish and doesn't share the same diet as Dewpider or Surskit, instead consuming rotting food as opposed to the former two, which eat microscopic organisms. A popular theory is that Dewpider has developed a structure like gills, where it can perform gas exchanges to get oxygen and release carbon dioxide. How it can breathe using the same water bubble for a long period of time without being affected by the high carbon dioxide concentration, however, is still a mystery.

If wild Pokémon share the same "habits" (the correct term here is ecological niche), like eating the same food or sleeping in the same place, they will naturally compete with one another to see which one comes out on top. Competition is an ecological relationship that is harmful to both parties, so to mitigate this, Dewpider eventually became mostly aquatic and diurnal, whereas Surskit stayed mainly terrestrial and nocturnal. Some say this was a result of Surskit's dominance over terrestrial spaces, as its gliding ability lets it move faster on land, thus letting it steal most of Dewpider's food, and also it just being more aggressive than Dewpider by nature. If you want to learn more about competition and other symbiotic relationships, this article by lydian is your go-to!

Croagunk loves to feed on Weedle and Spinarak, which is where it gets its potent venom from. These bug Pokémon are rich in alkaloids, which are basic (or alkaline) organic compounds that are generally very toxic. Croagunk manages to extract the alkaloids from Weedle and Spinarak and store them inside its body, mostly on its cheeks and middle finger, but its skin is also highly toxic. Not only did Croagunk's body evolve over time to be resistant to these alkaloids, Croagunk itself also learned to use them to hunt. A simple jab from Croagunk is not only powerful (it's a Fighting-type, after all), but it also has an incredibly high concentration of a toxin called batrachotxin. Batrachotoxin is one of the most powerful neurotoxins, known to paralyze prey in seconds by preventing the neurons from sending back signals telling the body to move. A single Poison Jab from Croagunk has enough toxins to knock out even a Slaking!

In the Sinnoh region, Croagunk are very popular as mascots for drug companies because of the potential benefits of other toxins they can produce. One of them is epibatidine, which is commercialized as a very strong painkiller, and unlike morphine, which is extracted from Tentacruel in the Alola region and shipped to other regions, epibatidine is not addictive or causes habituation (when an individual needs a stronger dose after every previous dose). However, the use of epibatidine is quite controversial, since the therapeutic dose used to cure everything from headaches to chronic back pain is very close to the lethal dose, and five people have been hospitalized due to this. As a result of authorities failing to address the situation properly and not blaming the accidents on drug companies that only saw easy profit from the sales Croagunk was giving them, the Pokémon started to be hunted by people who thought it was the one to blame. The Great Marsh had to shut down to prevent visitors from stealing or killing wild Croagunk, and Pastoria City became increasingly violent. Conservation efforts to save Croagunk and demistify it as an "evil" Pokémon are being made, but the situation looks grim for the little frog.

Lotad is a very clear case of symbiosis, more specifically mutualism: it's literally a vertebrate with a leaf on top of it. They're very clearly connected, and just as Lotad needs the leaf on its head to survive, the leaf depends on the little kappa. Lotad provides it with nitrogen, vitamins and minerals from the microscopic organism it feeds along with riverbed algae, while the leaf gives Lotad more glucose from its photosynthesis. Even with the extra help from its leaf, Lotad is quite lazy, as it's almost fully aquatic and spends 95% of its day just floating about in rivers photosynthesizing and loafing around. If my camouflage was that good, I would too.

What a smooth transition into my next topic, right? Camouflage is a very common occurrence in Pokémon, and there are actually different types! Firstly, Lotad fits into the mimicry category along with Foongus, Flabébé, Voltorb, and Galarian Stunfisk. Patterns like the ones seen in Zebstrika and Arcanine help them to blend with their surroundings, and that's also a type of camouflage. Next one is active camouflage. Do I even have to say anything? Sawsbuck is the best example by far! What? Were you expecting me to say Kecleon? Nope, Sawsbuck is an even better example, since it changes its patterns and antlers with each season and doesn't really have to do anything else, while Kecleon has to "manually" camouflage itself. Countershading, when a Pokémon has contrasting colors on opposite sides of its body to blend in, is seen in Mantyke and Mantine, as their blue backs blend with the sea water when seen from above and their white bellies with the light that shines down when seen from below. Finally, we have self-decoration, seen with all Burmy and Wormadam formes, as well as poor Mimikyu.

Most Pokémon of the order Strepsirrhines, which encompasses all primate Pokémon, are diurnal. Primeape, Ambipom, Infernape, Simisage, Simisear, Simipour, Passimian, Orangutan, and Rillaboom all have shown diurnal habits, meaning they are most active during the day, when they hunt, play, travel, and socialize. Zarude, however, is most active at night. This gives it an edge over other primates, since it doesn't need to compete for the best fruits, can avoid the midday heat, and most importantly, can camouflage itself extremely well at night with its pitch-black body. Zarude's mysterious nature and lack of knowledge about it are what have given it the "mythical" status among the scientific community, and that can also be attributed to its territorial and aggressive tendencies making it even harder to study. But despite their fierce nature, it is believed Zarude actually make for incredibly good parents. If their behavior is like of other primate Pokémon, then they will carry the newborn Pokémon with them while travelling, play, and sleep with it, and the infant is almost never without physical contact with the parents during the first six months after its birth. After that, Zarude would start to slowly distance themselves from their parents up until they're one year old and can live on their own. Rumor has it, a human child was raised by one, but there's no evidence for it as of now.

Ah, yes, the myth itself! The first ever mythical Pokémon to be catalogued that can learn almost all moves, the Pokémon scientists refer to as the mysterious "ancestor of all Pokémon" is... just a hairless cat. No, seriously! Mew's genetic composition for the longest time was one of the big discussion points among scientists, as it was known to learn basically every single move. We know that the moves a Pokémon can learn are based on what species it is, so Mew being able to learn every move didn't mean that it had all genetic code for all Pokémon, since that would imply it IS all Pokémon, and that isn't true, of course. Mew is its own species, a species that can learn a whole bunch of moves. This was essentially confirmed when a trainer from Hoenn found a map washed away in Lilycove City and managed to get access to Faraway Island, a location just as shrouded in mystery as the Pokémon. The Trainer unfortunately failed to capture Mew, saying it kept playing tricks on them, transforming into their Pokémon, using moves they had never seen before and eventually flying away after defeating the trainer's whole party in a single move each. However, on the way back, the Trainer noticed a single strand of extremely fine white hair stuck to their pants and remembered that although Mew looked hairless, when against direct sunlight, they could see it was covered in extremely thin hair. The Trainer got on the first plane ride to Kanto the next morning and got the sample delivered to Professor Oak, who had been studying the myth of Mew for years. When the test results came back, Oak noticed the DNA strands for the sample were really weird, as they looked... normal. In fact, when compared to a Meowth's DNA, it's the same, but not the same as a Growlithe, for example. Scientists then realized Mew was part of the genus Felis, which contain other mysterious Pokémon such as Purrloin, Glameow and... yea it's nothing special; for now, Mew is just a cat, guys! Sorry to disappoint!

All hope is not lost for Mew's greatness, though. There is still the big question as to why it's able to learn all kinds of moves, from Transform to Zap Cannon to Outrage. More research needs to be done on Mew to find out, as that single strand of hair didn't really reveal everything there is to know about it. So in the mean time, let's pretend it's this divine being gifted with infinite power and maybe try to search for it under a truck or something.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for accompanying me again in another Pokébiology article! The jungle is sure full of wonders and dangers, isn't it? Who knows what landscapes and biomes we might explore next? I guess you'll have to read the next issue to find out!

HTML by Lumari.

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