Natural selection in Pokémon?

Whilst skimming through PokéDex entries I discovered something interesting: The natural world of Pokémon functions like our own. There is fightinh, overcrowding, competition, predetors and prey. The following PokéDex entries are just a few examples.

Wurmple

Often targeted by bird Pokémon, it desperately resists by releasing poison from its tail spikes.

Sneasel

It feeds on eggs stolen from nests. Its sharply hooked claws rip vulnerable spots on prey.

Magikarp

For no reason, it jumps and splashes about, making it easy for predators like Pidgeotto to catch it mid-jump.

Slowpoke (Slowbro)

When a Slowpoke went hunting in the sea, its tail was bitten by a Shellder. That made it evolve into Slowbro.

There are more examples which I will not list, but you get the idea. In the Pokémon world there are predators (Pokémon like Slowpoke) and prey (Pokémon like Wurmple). Some Pokémon hunt, and some have evolved(no pun intended)defence mechanisms to ward off the hunters. But what does this mean?

It means that the Pokémon world has a food chain. Aggressive Pokémon like Sneasel will attack, kill and eat more passive Pokémon like Mamoswine, which in turn will try to defend themselves. This is an interesting idea, since it means there is a more realistic world of Pokémon outside of Trainer battles.

A little bit about food chains; there’s a top and there’s a bottom. The bottom is always,alwaystheproducers, or the plants. Every organism above that is aconsumer. A consumer is any organism that feeds on other organisms. This category includescarnivores,herbivores,scavengersanddecomposers.

Producers–Organisms that sustain life through teh energy of the Sun (trees, bushes, cacti)• The first category does not include any Pokémon. It is simply made up of all the normal trees, grasses and Berries you see in any Region, meaning that Trevenant, Servine and Cacnea arenotproducers, but consumers of some sort. While some Pokémondophotosynthesize, the energy they create are simply by-product, while the Pokémon’s actual diet consists of other life forms, be it leaves or Leavannys.

Decomposers–Organisms that break down the carcasses of other life forms into nutrients (fungi, bacteria).• One of the smallest groups of Pokémon, the decomposers are those that resumble fungi. This would include Shroomish, Parasect, and Foongus. There is no direct evidence to support the existence of decomposers in the Pokémon world, but logic says that there has to be.

Scavengers–Organisms that feed on the already-dead bodies of other living beings (vultures, worms).• Probably the most unsettling category, the scavengers of the Pokémon world are those who prefer a day-old Gogoat carcass to a fresh one. This would include creeps like Mandibuzz and other vulture-esque Pokémon.

Herbivores–Organisms that feed on producers (deer, elephants, wombats).• The herbivores of the Pokémon world are extraordinarily numerous. This would include any and all Pokémon whose diet is strictly plants, such as Tauros, Combee, Tropius, Mamoswine, Buneary and Kangaskhan.

Carnivores–Organisms that survive by hunting, killing and consuming other organisms (lions, leopards, hawks).• This is a positively massive category. It consists of any Pokémon that feeds exclusively on other Pokémon. Sneasel, Growlithe, Tyrantrum, Talonflame, Sharpedo, Staravia… the list goes on. Carnivores are what lead to my big question, but first let me show you two more steps on the Pokémon food chain…

The Abnormal–Organisms that rely on a unique food source.• This contains Pokémon like Sableye, who feeds on crystals and precious metals, and Drowzee, who feeds on dreams. I would also put Cacturne in this category, since it’s appetite moves beyond other Pokémon and on to humans.

If a traveler is going through a desert in the thick of night, Cacturne will follow in a ragtag group. The Pokémon are biding their time, waiting for the traveler to tire and become incapable of moving.

The Unknown– Organisms with no known food source.• What does Groudon eat as he lies dormant in his volcanic abode? What is the diet of Giratina, the only denizen of the Distortion World? How could Mew stand to eat an innocent Weedle, its own flesh and blood? How the heck does Aegislash eat anything? These are the Unknown; what they feed on is a mystery.

Going back to carnivores, let me go a tad bit more in-depth. Within the category of “predator” there are different classes; while the spider lives by catching flies, so does the sparrow live by catching the spider. Then the snake eats the sparrow, the eagle eats the nake, and so on. But what eats the eagle? Nothing. The eagle is theapex predator. An apex preditor isthemost powerful, most invulnerable, most feared creature in its ecosystem.

This lead me to wonder:What is the apex predator of the Pokémon world, if one exists?

Legendary Pokémon like Arceus and Ho-Oh are eliminated, since they live on a whole other plane entirely. So just what isthetop predator in the Pokémon world? Haxorus, with his deadly axes? Charizard, with his fiery breath? Or could it be Gengar, whose ability to travel through shadows makes him virtually invincible? Perhaps it’s the soul-sucking Dusclops…

What is the apex predator of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos?

I was inspired by this

Apparently there’s confusion on what an apex predator is. I will explain again. An apex predator is thetoppredator, the one that hunts everything else. Nothing, I repeatnothing, actively hunts the apex predator. That’s not to say it can’t be killed; a starving python will attack and kill a lion if it’s desperate. It’s just that the lion doesn’t have to watch his back constantly, since there is nothing in ot’s environment that includes “Lion” in its everyday diet.

Pleaselog inorregisterto add a comment.

I have to say this is one of the most thought provoking theories I’ve read regarding Pokemon.I’ll add my thoughts on this one.

First of all, I disagree with Torym’s answer which says Psychic types are the apex predators in the Pokemon world, because:

Now on to the apex predators themselves. I’m not considering individual regions for this, and there might be a few potential candidates that I missed out. So please bear with me.

There will be different apex predators in different ecosystems. Just like Lion being the apex predator in land, Eagles in air and Sharks/Crocodiles in water.

Of course it had to be this guy. He’s huge, he’s evil and he won’t hesitate to kill. Anything.

“Tyranitar is so overwhelmingly powerful, it can bring down a whole mountain to make its nest. This Pokémon wanders about in mountains seeking new opponents to fight.”

You wouldn’t call any Pokemon that can knock over a mountain anything short ofApex Predator.

I’ve always referred to Tyranitar as the Godzilla of Pokemon. (Since Tyrantrum is the T-Rex anyways…)

Another totally obvious one here. Gyarados has been considered one of the fearsome, utterly evil, and totally unstoppable Pokemon right from Gen 1. There is absolutely no question on who is theApex Predatorof the sea.

“Once Gyarados goes on a rampage, its ferociously violent blood doesn’t calm until it has burned everything down. There are records of this Pokémon’s rampages lasting a whole month.”

This one wasn’t as obvious as land and water, because I didn’t know which of to pick between Hydreigon and Garchomp. In the end I chose the former due to it’s sheer destructive nature.

“The heads on their arms do not have brains. They use all three heads to consume and destroy everything.”

This Pokemon isn’t classified as the ‘Brutual Pokemon’ for no reason. This has to be theApex Predatorof air.

Please comment your opinions.:)

Inspiring question you made friend. Really a step above the crowd, I’m impressed.

Let’s deal with your question now, shall we?

For starters, as you requested, let’s exclude the legendary Pokémons. This leave us with just the pseudo legendaries and the regular Pokémons, even if, as you may know, pseudo legendary are considered somewhat stronger than average.

Although what defines strength, in our world and in the pokémon’s world?

Usually we refer to predators as “born killers”, but truly, would they still be in the top tiers if put in a different habitat?Probably not.

So where does this bring us?

It’s their capability of adapting to the circumstances around them, using all their power, instincts, natural abilities that defines if they really are worth of the name, as you said, apex predator.

So let’s move on to the next step.

Both in our world, and in the world of Pokémon, there arevery fewexamples of a predator that remains such if it’s located in a different habitat than its own.

It may sound silly, but a shark out of water it’s no threat as much as a rhino if you are above ground level.

This means that, as you probably figured out,the smarter and more adaptable the pretator is, the bigger the threat it poses.

So sadly, if we are to draw a parallel between our world and the fictional one of Pokémons, it comes by itself thatwe are the bigger threats, due to our natural capability of adapting and our superior intellect.

Some could raise a point that we aren’t the natural stronger race on this planet, but I personally don’t see how a lion could maneuver a car, execute a medical operation, or make a society that isn’t an anarchy with just a few others of its race.

This also brings us to another important point for the dominance of the alimentary chain:coexistence.

It goes without saying thatthe bigger the number, the bigger the strength.A predator is no such thing if it faces a number of threats that could potentially kill it.

A primal example is how lionesses back down if they have to face more than three or four elephants at a time, or, and this may shock some of you, how a seagull becomes the prey if there are too many crabs. Obviously this isn’t the case if faced one to one: a wolf would most likely tear me to shreds. But if it was me you, and five other persons, the wolf would most likely escape or get killed.

So concluding, if we want to consider us in the count for the “strongest” predator, than it would most likely be us for our world and for the Pokémon world the type that most resembles our capabilities: thePsychic type.

This is because most psychic types are shown possessing high IQs, *high communications capabilities and problems solving, not to mention the ability to manipulate matters around them or see into the future.

Just think of pokémons likeAlakazam,Slowking,Latios&Latias,Gardevoir,Metagrossand lastlyMewtwo.

If wedon’tthan, it would be the predator that not necessarily shows the biggest brute strength,but the one that exceeds in numbers.

I know that this probably isn’t the answer you were hoping for, but I’m positive it brings important and interesting points that need to be considered and kept in mind.

Hope this helps you, Astro!

Torym