Does It Fit Galar?

This blog will operating solely on The Rule: Does it fit into the Galar Region? Cut Pokemon that do, or included/new Pokemon that don’t will be posted onto this blog along with information about their real world counterparts and their relationship with the UK. I might also talk about some of the Pokemon that have been correctly included, but that will only happen if I run out of Pokemon, or become filled with an overpowering desire to just talk about our animals. (Please be aware that I am making my decision purely on The Rule, and not on how I feel about the Pokemon themselves, otherwise Sandshrew would be there, because Sandshrew is adorable.)

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Just to reassure everyone that this blogs still active. I’m just not able to put up posts to quite such a regular schedule at the moment, thanks to a combination of Christmas prep and the fact I’m beginning to wear down and need some IVs to pirk me up (with my disability it’s pretty normal for me, so there’s no need to worry).

I’m still going to get to the end of Generation 1 before I take a break, but I’m not going to be able to post quite so regularly for the next few weeks. So sorry about that.

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Tauros

Like many places, the UK has several native Cattle breeds. However, as I’ve also got to talk about Miltank on this blog, I’m instead going to focus on the four UK Cattle breeds that I think look the most like Tauros. I feel these Cows can all strike a somewhat strong and intimidating look, and crucially, both males and females sport a pair of majestic horns.

Let’s start with the incredibly famous Highland Cattle.

Highland Cattle are a very distinctive and very old breed that have been around since at least the 18th century. They’re well known for being incredibly hardy animals, being able to survive and reproduce in areas other Cattle can’t, such as the mountainous terrain of of Scotland, its native home. Their shaggy coat helps to keep them warm, and they can use their horns to dig through snow for food.

Highland Cattle are valuable farm animals. They can live to be around 20 years old and have been known to give birth to calves until their 18. Produce wise, they are best known for their beef, which is lower in both fat an cholesterols than that produced by other breeds Cattle, as well as being high in protein and iron. Although they aren’t generally farmed for milk on a commercial basis, it is also fairly unique, thanks to its high butterfat content designed to help keep their calves well nourished in their harsh home.

Now let’s move on to White Park Cattle.

White Park Cattle are another old breed, who are closely descended from the UK’s original, wild Cattle, and have been around for over 2,000 years. Not only are they another long lived breed, but they’re also able to produce calves well into their lives, with some giving birth when their 20.

White Park Cattle are currently very rare, and was chosen as the logo of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust when it formed in 1973. Fortunately their numbers are slowly coming back, going from just 60 when the Trust was founded, to around 950 today.

They also feature heavily in one of the Myths of Norther Ireland, called The Cattle-Raid of Cooley. Personally this is something I’d like to give it’s own, special post to once I’ve finished with Generation 1, but if you’re interested you can read about it here.

Next we come to the English Longhorn.

English Longhorns are yet another incredibly old breed, and yet another healthy and long lived one that calves easily (I think there’s a pattern developing here). They’re thought to originate in Cavern, (an area in the North East of England) and were originally bread for milk, beef and their strength, with their horns also being used to make things.

While it’s now mostly used as a beef Cow because of how it’s meat is tender and low in fat, English Longhorn milk is of good quality with a high butterfat content and used to be used to make both Stilton and Red Leicester cheese.

Finally we come to the Gloucester Cattle.

Gloucester Cattle are one of the rarest breeds in the world. They’re also (unsurprisingly at this point) a very old and long lived type of Cattle. They’ve been around since the 13th century, but by 1972 were risking extinction with just one heard remaining. Thanks to the Gloucester Cattle Society they’ve managed to begin to recover, and there are now over 700 female Gloucester Cows registered today.

Gloucester Cattle have an important part in Gloucesters heritage, being used as Draught Oxen, giving good quality beef, and being highly valued for their milk, which was used to make Gloucester Cheese and butter. However their importance within history doesn’t just just affect Gloucester, in fact Gloucester Cattle have had an important affect on the whole world. This is because the first smallpox serum was taken by Sir Edward Jenner in 1786 from a Gloucester Cow named Blossom.

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Sorry about the delay with today’s post. I’ve spent the last two days lost in official Cattle websites, looking at very specific information that isn’t in any way going to be useful for this blog. In good news I, can now identify our Cow breeds by sight and the post should go up in the next few hours!

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Pinsir

Stag Beetles are the largest of all the UK’s Beetles, (as the band is spelt differently and therefore doesn’t count) and can be found in the South East of England. It also turns out that they have their own official website made by the Royal Holloway University of London, which I’ll put up with my other sources once I’ve finished with the Gen 1 Pokemon, just in case anyone wants to find out more.

Stag Beetles actually spend a very short period of their lives above ground as Beetles, coming to the surface in May with their only goal being to mate, before dying in August once their eggs have been laid. Their time as larvae however lasts for five to six years.

Stag Beetles larvae spends most of its time eating rotten wood and building up the fat reserve they’ll rely on as an adult. In fact, although Stag Beetles can use their long and feathery tongue to drink things like tree sap, it appears to do absolutely nothing to extend their life, it’s even thought that the size of some males horns might mean that they can’t drink at all.

Once their time as a larvae is over, the Stag Beetle larvae moves from the rotten wood into the soil before building a cocoon of earth around itself. Inside this cocoon the larvae begins to transform into a Stag Beetle, becoming something known as a pupa. This lasts for a few weeks before their pupal case splits and the newly formed Stag Beetle crawls out, it then spends the next 24 hours darkening and drying out its wings. By this point winter will have arrived, so it stays underground until May before burrowing out to live it’s short life above ground.

Interestingly, once they become pregnant, female Stag Beetles return to the place where they themselves tunnelled out of the soil to tunnel back down and lay her eggs.

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Staryu and Starmie

Starfish are odd creatures. They have no brain or blood, the ends of their arms have eyes and hundreds of tiny feet, can just pop out it’s stomach to eat and regrow their arms in a pinch. There are also over 2,000 different species in the world, and six of them can be found in UK waters. Let’s work through them alphabetically.

The Bloody Henry Starfish is actually the name for two of the six species. This is because, Henricia Oculata and Henricia Sanguinolenta (to give them their scientific names) are so similar that it’s incredibly difficult to tell the two of them apart.

They can be found in seabeds up to 1m (about 39 inches) deep all around the UK, and occasionally in rock pools. On average they grow to be about 10cm (about 4 inches) wide, but they have been known to grow to twice that size.

Although Bloody Henry Starfish get there name from their purple-red colour, they can also be brown, lavender, or dark red.

Common Starfish are found all around the UK and, being the most common type of Starfish in the North East Atlantic, certainly lives up to its name. They can be found in rock pools and seabeds up to 6m (about 19.6 inches) deep.

Like all Starfish, Common Starfish are predictors, particularly of shellfish like clams and oysters. They eat their prey by prising their shell open with their arms, sticking their stomach inside and using the acid to digest the shellfish into a soup like substance, before reabsorbing their stomach with the soup attached. Unsurprisingly they’re seen a something of a pest on oyster and mussel beds, especially as a plentiful food source will always draw lots of them.

Unlike out stereotypical image of a five armed Starfish, the Common Sunstar can have between eight and sixteen arms; though between ten and twelve are the most common. As you’ve probably worked out, they get their name from the fact they look a bit like the sun. These Starfish can be found all around the costs of the UK, and can be found anywhere from shallow water and rock pools, to the bottom of parts of the ocean up to 50m (about 164 feet) deep.

Common Sunstars aren’t fussy about what they prey upon and will not only eat Sea Cucumbers, Brittle Stars and different species of Starfish, but other Sunstars as well.

Cushion Stars are, in my opinion, the cutest of all the Starfish on this list, being only 5cm (about 2 inches) wide with five short and stubby arms. They’re found all around Great Britain (though they’re less common along the North East Coast) and can be found in both shallow water and rock pools, and in parts of the sea up to 100m (about 328 feet) deep.

Cushion Stars are protandrous hermaphrodites. This means that they are all born as males before transitioning into females if they grow beyond a certain size.

The largest of all the UK Starfish, Spiny Starfish can grow to be up to 70cm (about 27.5 inches) wide. They have green skin and are covered in white spines.

Spiny Starfish are mainly found along the South West Coast of England and Whales. However, out of all the Starfish on this list, Spiny Starfish are the most versatile when it comes to the depth they’ll live at, inhabiting shallow, costal waters, to oceans up to 200m (about 656 feet) deep.

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Horsea, Seadra and Kingdra

Seahorses are monogamous and, as many people know, are the only animal with a reversed pregnancy. Female Seahorses transfer the eggs to the male, who then self fertilises them and keeps them in his brood pouch until they are ready to be born.

There are two types of Seahorse within UK waters, Long-snouted and Short-snouted.

Long-snouted Seahorses are also known as Spiny Seahorses, and have a fleshy mane along its neck and back. They’re not particularly good swimmers and can be found in the coastal waters of South England and Wales, using their tail to cling to seaweed and sea grass so as not to be swept away.

Short-snouted Seahorses live in shallow, sea grass meadows along the South Coast of England, and, recently, up the Thames. As their name suggests they have a short, upturned snout that’s less than a third the length of its head. They can be light brown or a mottled purple in colour and, unlike other species of Seahorse, they don’t have a mane.

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Hi! I love this blog, and you're doing an amazing job. As a fellow brit I'm often confused by the pokemon that "fit the region" and took the place of others that seem more suited *cough* literal yorkshire terrier pokemon *cough*. Have a lovely day 💙

Thanks, I hope you also have a lovely day!

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Rhyhorn, Rhydon and Rhyperior

There are five species of rhino in the world, all of whom live in tropical or subtropical environments. This means that, as you may have guessed, neither the Black, White, Indian, Sumatran or Javan Rhinoceros can be founding the UK. (Shocking I know.)

This is one of the included Pokemon that most blatantly does not fit in with the Galar landscape, and it turns out that the Welsh Rhino is a real animal and not one made up by the Basil Brush Show for a one off joke about a gourmet steak, I won’t be including it in my Galar Dex. However, while doing my research I did find this advert from the London Gazette in 1684, and I really want to show it to you all:

(Here’s a transcript, because it’s a bit difficult to read and the full thing wouldn’t fit in the image description:)

A Very Strange Beast called a Rhynoceros, lately brought from the East Indies, being the first that ever was in England, is daily to be seen a the Bell Savage Inn on Ludgate-Hill, from Nine a Clock in the Morning till Eight at Night.

Apparently the visitors were charged one shilling to look at the Rhino and two to ride on its back. Sadly it later died two years later.

Now let’s move on to some more current information, starting with the Black Rhino.

Black Rhino’s are found throughout Southern and Eastern Africa, in a wide range of habitats. Although they’re generally territorial and solitary animals, they can be more sociable depending on the environment they live in.

These Rhinos are browsers, which means that they eat from bushes and trees. Because of their long, hooked lip, they leave behind a clean edge when they eat wood like food. This means you can tell if a plant has been eaten by one, as elephants leave the edges shredded.

White Rhinos are the largest of all the Rhino and have big heads and more muscular necks that their other African counterpart. This is because grazing on grasses requires more muscle power than browsing from trees. They’re found mostly in South Africa and, while males are generally solitary, females will live happily in Crashes of up to six.

Interestingly there’s no difference between the skin colour of a White Rhino and that of a Black one. The name, White Rhino instead comes from a mistranslation of the word wyd into ‘white’ rather than ‘wide’ which is what it actually means.

Indian Rhinos are also called Great One-Horned Rhinos, and, as their name implies, they are found in India and Nepal. They are the second biggest Rhino in the world, and, with their thick, folded skin, are also the one Rhyhorn’s evolutionary line most closely resembles. The skin itself can be up to 4cm (about 1.4 inches) thick!

Despite their thick skin, Indian Rhinos are actually semi aquatic and can dive to reach food. They often live their generally solitary lives in swamps, forest or by riversides, where they enjoy swimming, wallowing, and eating an average of 1% of their body weight every day.

Sumatran Rhinos are the smallest Rhino, and have been on the planet for a very long time. They are the closest living relative of the famous Woolly Rhino, and are in fact more closely related to them than to any of the current living species.

Sadly they are also critically endangered, with less than 80 left in the wild. Just this week, on the 23rd of November 2019, they were declared officially extinct in Malaysia after the last know Rhino died of cancer.

Javan Rhinos are a close relative of the Indian Rhino, and also doing incredibly badly, existing in a single population of just 65 to 68 individuals, found in Ujung Kulon (a part of wester Java in Indonesia). Fortunately this population is strictly protected and has slowly begun to increase. Originally, in 1967, there were less than 30 Rhinos, but since then their population has been either stagnant or increasing.

With the strict protection of both the Javan Rhinos and their habitat, along with the plans to create new populations elsewhere, the population should be able to reach at least 2,000 in the next 150 years.

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I’ve got family over for a few days so I’m not going to have time to update the blog.

So much like the London Undeground, this blogs services are suspended for the weekend for reasons that those running it really should have been prepared for.

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Grimer and Muk

The Oxford dictionary defines sludge as “thick, soft, wet mud or a similar viscous mixture of liquid and solid components, especially the product of an industrial or refining process.” It’s no surprise, therefore, that like pretty much everywhere else in the world, the UK makes sludge.

Sludge can be made of many things, for example sewage. In fact, according to an article that was published by the World Wildlife Fund in 2017, 40% of the rivers in England and Wales are polluted by sewage. This pollution causes algae to rapidly grow, which in turn starves the river of the oxygen its inhabitants need to survive.

The Alolan Grimer and Muk, with their basing of an oil spill would sadly also fit. Our most recent spill happened just over three years ago in 2016, when a BP oil platform leaked 95 tons of oil into the North Sea.

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Seel and Dewgong

Given my previous visits to seal sanctuaries, and their frequent televised appearances on all the UK’s Watch shows (by which I mean Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, I am not including Crimewatch), I can say with absolute, crystal clear certainty that we have seals in the UK. In fact we have two types: Common Seals and Grey Seals.

Of the two species, Common Seals are smaller and, ironically, less common species of seal in the UK. The aren’t in themselves small however, growing up to 2m (about 6.6 foot) long and weighing up to 150kg (about 330 pounds).

To rest and digest their food, Common Seals will often haul themselves onto beaches and sandbanks. While they’re there, they’ll often rest in the famous banana pose, with both their head and tail up in the air at the same time.

The average lifespan of a Common seal is 20 to 35 years, and their pups begin to swim when they’re only a few hours old.

Despite dropping to only 500 in the early 20th century, the Grey Seal population has recovered so well that, not only are they now our most common seal, but the UK is home to 40% of the Grey Seals around the world.

At 2.6m (about 8.5 feet) and weighing up to 300kg (about 661 pounds), Grey Seals aren’t just bigger than Common Seals, they’re also our largest land breeding carnivore. Aside from they’re colossal size, Grey Seals also have longer heads and give birth to their pups between September and December, rather than in the summer months.

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So, I’ve been fact checking for tomorrow’s post about Seals, and trying to find out how easy it is for other people to get hold of some of the information.

For some reason, no matter what I put in, Google is absolutely adamant that the Badger is the UK’s largest carnivore.

(For those curious Badgers are indeed our largest land carnivore, but they’re not the largest carnivore over all. They’re not even the largest land breeding carnivore, that’s Grey Seals.)

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Magnemite and Magneton

The first person to research the properties of magnetic iron ore (also known as loadstone) and invent the term electricity, was an English physician and scientists called William Gilbert.

He is best known for the publication of his book, De Magnete (The Magnet), in 1600, which was a publication of his findings. It showed the difference between magnetism and static, as well as drawing similarities between the polarity of a magnet and that of our planet. Soon after its publication it was accepted as the standard work of ‘electrical and magnetic phenomena’ across Europe.

Two years after his book’s publication William Gilbert died. Probably of the Black Death.

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Geodude, Graveler and Golem

Since before this blog began I’ve been thinking of a way to (with my limited rock knowledge) respond to the absence of Geodude, Graveler and Golem with something that wasn’t this.

At first I planned to get some fun facts about the UK’s rocks from my geologist of a dad, however after being met with complete bafflement about what fun fact we’re, I had to abandon that idea. Instead here are a couple of rocky landscapes from the UK I actually know a little bit about.

The Giant's Causeway is found in Northern Ireland. It’s made up of around 40,000 hexagon pillars of basalt that were formed by a volcanic eruption almost 60 million years ago.

According to Legend however the Giant’s Causeway was created by Benandonner and Fionn, two giants who hated each other. One day Fionn insulted Benandonner so much that he decided to build a path so he could reach Scotland. The path was then ripped up by Benandonner, and so the Giant’s Causeway was created.

Brighton Beach is 6 miles long and contains approximately 614,600,000 pebbles. Despite the lack of beach you can comfortably stand on, in 1979 Brighton became the first place in Britain to open a naturist beach.

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Tentacool and Tentacruel

(As will probably become apparent by the lack of information, I’m not as knowledgeable on Common Squid as I am on most of the other creatures on this blog. So apologies for that.)

The Common, or European Squid can be found right across the UK’s coasts. Along with the two long tentacles they use to catch their prey, they have eight smaller arms gathered around their beak. If the squid is male, then one of these arms is called a hectocotylus, meaning it’s specially adapted to transfer sperm cells over to female squid. If she’s been fertilised successfully, the female squid will then go on to lay long white tubes of eggs that she sticks to solid objects on the sea floor. In total she can lay up to 20,000 eggs at once.

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Venonat and Venomoth

From what I can gather Venonat and Venomoth are based on a combination of the Garden Tiger Moth, and the Swallowtail Butterfly. Both of whom are native to the UK.

Garden Tiger Moths are a relatively common species, found throughout England, Wales and Scotland. However since the 1970’s their population has been sadly declining, probably due to a combination of the increased use of weed killers, and the trend of colder Februaries due to global warming.

Because their caterpillars are so hairy they are often referred to as woolly bears!

Swallowtail Butterflies on the other hand aren’t as common, in fact they’re one of the UK’s rarest butterflies, only being found in parts of Norfolk (a county in the far East of England). Despite its rare state the Norfolk’s population of native Swallowtails is, fortunately, stable at the moment.

Native British Swallowtail Butterflies only eat Milk-Parsley, while the Swallowtails from other countries will eat a verity of plants. This means that you can tell British Swallowtails apart from ones that occasion migrate over from other countries.

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Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom

Not only are Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom the first of the included Pokemon we come to not to fit The Rule, but they are also the first Pokemon we’ve reached that require us to split the evolution lines.

I was a bit conflicted about doing this at first but, as Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom are based off of a Stinking Corpse Lily (the very reason Bulbasaur’s line doesn’t have a post on this blog) including them just didn’t feel right. Oddish however is based on a Mandrake, which although not native to the UK, has a lot of mythology surrounding it that very much does come up throughout our history.

So I decided that, as earlier generations had some Pokemon without their earlier evolution, and other Pokemon without later evolutions, in the fiction of Pokemon there are obviously some regions where Pokemon evolution lines are just like that. And so I decided Galar would just be one of those places and split the evolution line right up.

(Of course another alternative could be giving Gloom, Vileplume and Bellossom a Galar form, perhaps a Tudor Rose as they’re a similar shape, but I’m no artist and I’m just dealing with the Pokemon I have).

Now that that the explanation’s out of the way lets get on with the post:

Stinking Corpse Lilies are only found in the rain forests of Sumatra and in the Malay Archipelago in Borneo. They are also the largest flowers in the world, with a diameter of about 1m (3 foot) and weighing up to 11kg (25 pounds). Despite its large size however, it’s actually a parasite, relying on the Tetrastigma Vine to act as host and provide with roots, leaves, stem and chlorophyll.

These flowers start off as large, cabbage sized buds on the root of its host, and takes about 9 months to blossom. The flower itself only lasts for three to four days before collapsing into a slimy black mess.

Along with White Jasmines and Moon Orchids, the Stinking Corpse Lily is one of Indonesia’s three national flowers. Despite this status however it is sadly considered threatened or endangered in all of its habitats.

Also, as their name implies, they absolutely stink with a smell that’s a bit like rotting corpses.