pokémon herpetology @pkmnherpetology - Tumblr Blog

welcome to pokémon herpetology!

this is a blog where we discuss reptile and amphibian pokémon and their biology, ecology, and husbandry. my name is k and i'm a trainer who has studied all of these things. below are some frequently asked questions to help get you started.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #blog details #rotomblr

each arbok’s hood pattern is unique, just like how liepard all have different spots. this is one of the easiest ways to tell individual arbok apart from each other.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #arbok #kanto #johto #kalos

did you know that clodsire and quagsire males are excellent fathers? it’s true! those large males that inhabit nests during the breeding season- the denmasters- are also devoted fathers.

as the eggs develop, denmasters of these species will take three main steps to ensure the health and survival of their offspring: tail fanning, egg agitating, and- stay with me for this one- filial cannibalism.

tail fanning describes a male clodsire or quagsire using his large keeled tail to, as you may have guessed, fan his eggs. egg agitation describes the denmaster using his head and body to shift or move his eggs around, and filial cannibalism is the consumption of eggs.

tail fanning helps to increase the oxygen supply to the eggs, while egg agitation is believed to serve several purposes: preventing yolk adhesion during development and subsequent developmental abnormalities, monitoring the general health of the eggs, and warding off small egg-eating predators or parasites. filial cannibalism is the oddest of the three and may not sound like a way to ensure the survival of your offspring, but researchers observed that the eggs these large males eat appear to be dead, infertile, or infected with water mold or other diseases. by eating them, the denmaster prevents the spread of pathogens to his remaining offspring. as a result, this form of filial cannibalism has been dubbed hygienic filial cannibalism.

after the eggs hatch into wooper, the denmaster dedicates his time primarily to ferrying and guarding his offspring from predators as best as he can. once the wooper have reached about five or six inches in length, they become independent, and the male returns to his bachelor lifestyle.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #clodsire #quagsire #rotomblr #[the basis for this is a study on japanese giant salamanders by okada et al]#[i believe similar studies with similar results have been done on the chinese complex.]#[eh...as far as i know in real life parental care ends at hatching tho.]#[from what i’ve read hellbender males just kinda eat their eggs in general. sometimes all of them. it’s a problem.]#[it's not clear why they do that but poor habitat quality may be a factor.]#kanto #johto #sinnoh #kalos #paldea

heliolisk has one of the highest uv requirements of any reptile pokémon. not only does uv energy help them generate photosynthetic energy that they use to supplement their food and generate their electricity, it also helps them synthesize vitamin d3. heliolisk that aren’t regularly exposed to high levels of uva and uvb (and given plenty of options as to where and when to bask) are at risk of developing metabolic bone disease, which can result in a variety of debilitating symptoms including low energy, bone weakness, deformations, and in the worst cases, death.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #heliolisk #kalos #galar #[give your lizards and turtles uv lights y'all.]#[evidence suggests snakes benefit from them as well although they do not die without them.]#[that said information on uv lighting for hypomelanistic animals is somewhat lacking...send help.]

[so…since the new region is apparently based on indonesia…]

[here’s a few indonesian/south asian herps i would love to see represented. please note that information here is cursory and not like, the word of an expert.]

[the komodo dragon, a monitor lizard endemic to a handful of indonesian islands. this is the world’s largest currently living lizard, with males reaching about 10 feet. the komodo dragon is most famous for its painful and deadly bite, and in 2009 glands containing toxic proteins were found in the jaw of a dragon that had contracted a terminal illness. however, whether these glands produce true venom or not is hotly debated among scientists to this day. komodo dragons also boast teeth tipped with an iron-enriched coating. komodo dragons can stand on their hind legs for brief periods of time, most notably when fighting other dragons. these "wrestling" matches are not usually fatal, but occassionally, severe injuries or deaths may occur. adults are cannibalistic, driving the young into the trees to avoid predation. like most monitors, these animals are extremely intelligent and can identify voices. human fatalities have occurred from this species. my suggested typings: poison/dark, poison/fighting, poison/dragon or poison/steel.]

[the asian water monitor, another large monitor lizard with a wide range across south and southeast asia, including indonesia. these lizards are semiaquatic generalists that use their slightly keeled tails to swim and their varied diet includes both live prey and carrion. like komodo dragons, juveniles of this species will climb trees to escape predation, and it appears that adults are competent climbers as well. this species will also participate in wrestling. some debate seems to exist as to whether this species, and monitors in general, are venomous. asian water monitors adapt well to the presence of people and can survive in populated areas as long as natural vegetation remains. my suggested typings: water/dragon or water/fighting. this is also my pick for gecqua's final evolution.]

[the sailfin dragons of the genus hydrosaurus, represented here by the indonesian giant sailfin dragon. this is here as an alternative evolution for gecqua. these are large lizards (about 3 feet) that share some traits with basilisks, despite not being in the same family. most notably, it is reported that sailfin dragons can sprint briefly across water, although i also think that they just have very similar body plans. sailfin dragons have a parietal eye on top of their head, a trait they share with some other lizards as well as the lizardlike but unrelated tuatara. as you might have gathered from the genus name literally meaning "water lizard," sailfin dragons are semiaquatic, though they also spend a fair amount of time in trees overlooking the water. species that i can find dietary info on are omnivores that eat insects, fruits, vegetables, and sometimes small vertebrates such as fish or frogs. sailfin dragons, i think specifically the filipino species, can be found in the herpkeeping hobby and reportedly tame down well when hand-raised. my suggested typing: water/dragon.]

[the paradise flying snake, a beautifully-colored and mildly rear-fanged venomous snake native to several southeast asian countries including indonesia. these highly arboreal snakes possess the ability to flatten their bodies and glide. they also demonstrate the ability to control their “flight” by essentially slithering in the air. my suggested typings: grass/flying or poison/flying.]

[the common flying dragon, a member of the draco genus found in southeast asia including indonesia. members of this genus have elongated ribs that form "wings" used to glide through the treetops in their natural arboreal habitat. these "wings," more officially known as patagia, are also used by males in courtship. my suggested typing: dragon/flying. duh.]

[the asian vine snake, a mild to moderately venomous rear-fanged colubrid with a wide south asian distribution, including indonesia. these snakes are highly arboreal lizard and amphibian eaters with coloration ranging from a dull brown to this bright blueish-green color. this species is in taxonomic chaos from what i can find. my suggested typings: grass or grass/poison.]

[the elephant trunk snakes, a genus of fully aquatic snakes found in brackish or freshwater habitats (with a single species being highly adapted for marine life) in australia and southeast asia, including indonesia. the individual pictured here is admittedly australian. these extremely shy snakes have unusual baggy skin that helps them hold their fish prey still while they eat it as well as small pyramidal scales that do not overlap. they are almost completely helpless on land, with some sources claiming that being on land for prolonged periods of time is even dangerous or harmful to their health. these snakes are sensitive and unfortunately tend to fare poorly in human care thus far due to an unwillingness to eat and tendency towards skin infections, although at least one zoo in the united states has kept a healthy one. some success has been reported in the hands of very specialized and dedicated private keepers. as far as i am aware, no captive-bred populations have been established. my suggested typing: water.]

[the malayan blue coral snake, a semi-fossorial elapid found in elevated regions of south asia, including indonesia and obviously malaysia. these snakes are unrelated to the coral snakes of the united states aside from sharing a family. these ophiophagous snakes primarily feed on other venomous snakes. snakes of this species boast unusually large venom glands as well as a unique venom called calliotoxin (after the genus, calliophis). there is no antivenom, though human fatalities appear to be relatively uncommon. aside from their venom, there’s not much particularly noteworthy about this snake, but i’m including it because it’s very pretty and i think it could inspire a nice new pokémon species. my suggested typing: poison.]

[the olive sea snake, a ubiquitous indo-pacific sea snake found in reef habitats. this elapid spends its entire life in the ocean, swimming around its warm coastal habitat with its paddle-like tail. these snakes will defend themselves if provoked and have potentially deadly venom, but bites are rare and evidence suggests that many instances of divers being “charged” by olive sea snakes were actually just cases of extremely horny males somehow mistaking the divers for a female. photoreceptors have been found in this species’ tails, allowing them to detect light and ensure that they’re completely hidden when they want to be. this trait may be shared with other sea snakes, but this is not confirmed. my suggested typing: water/poison.]

[any caecilian, represented here by the java-endemic marsh caecilian. the only extant amphibian order not represented in the games, caecilians are poorly understood fossorial or aquatic amphibians often mistaken for worms or eels. despite their appearance, caecilians have very short tails, and some species have no tail whatsoever. although they share some common traits including toxic secretions with salamanders and frogs, anurans and caudates are more closely related to each other than they are to caecilians. some caecilians give live birth, others lay eggs. their eyes are typically covered with skin and sometimes bone, and are so rudimentary they can only really detect light and darkness. these odd amphibians move through the ground by using their heads as battering rams. the most interesting fact about caecilians is that some species demonstrate maternal care. females may guard the eggs, allow young to scrape skin off their bodies to eat or even have young scrape their uterine lining, or even secrete "milk" to nourish their offspring! my suggested typings: ground, ground/poison, water/poison, or water, depending on the inspiration species.]

[any of the 30+ members of the crocodile newt genus, represented here by the emperor newt. it actually does not look like indonesia specifically has any native salamanders, but i like salamanders, so i'm going to suggest one. let me have this. crocodile newts, also known as knobby newts, are a genus of highly toxic salamander in the family salamandridae found from india and nepal to laos and vietnam. habitat and life history do seem to vary somewhat between species and as of 2023 there were 38 accepted species in the genus with many having little to no available information, so i can't really give any sort of major overview of these animals beyond knowing that they inhabit subtropical rainforests, at least some species breed in ephemeral wetlands, and at least some are extremely poisonous. my suggested typings: based on natural history, water/poison or grass/poison seems fair, but the bright coloration of many species in this genus and the (albeit i believe european in origin) folklore association between salamanders and fire open this one up to a poison/fire type as well.]

#pokémon #.txt #blog details #[yeah sorry i'll get back on the fake stuff at some point.]#[but hey you follow me for herpetology right?]

by the way, if you remember that alpha ekans i caught a while back that was terrorizing the lumiose city cemetery, she has officially reached maturity and is now an adult arbok.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #arbok #kalos #[this hairstyle is no longer accurate lmao i chopped that shit OFF.]#[the manbun look suits me better in games than irl i think. plus short hair is easier.]

[with all the discussion and discourse on the new starters i wanted to share something entirely unrelated to herpetology but very interesting.

the reason why incineroar looks Like That is because it’s based on a specific character- tiger mask from the 1968 manga of the same name. the manga also inspired a puro character that has been portrayed by many puro wrestlers but the puro character is usually a face.

in the manga, tiger mask is a japanese heel wrestling in america, where he gains a reputation for excessive brutality and ruthlessness. nonetheless, tiger mask has a soft spot for kids and turns face when he goes back to japan and meets a kid from the same orphanage he grew up in that tells him tiger mask is his hero. that’s why incineroar’s sv entry mentions it showing softness towards small pokémon.

the manga is fairly old and i’m not sure how popular puro is in japan these days or if there’s still someone playing tiger mask in the ring, i think wrestling kinda hit its heyday decades ago and hasn’t had the same cultural grasp in america for a while, so i’m not sure how much sense this made to japanese audiences, but it seems to have gone over a lot of american/european audiences’ heads that incineroar is a specific character and not just a general heel wrestler. there’s a few old reddit threads on the matter but i think most people had no idea what the fuck incineroar was and that probably colored the discourse about it a lot. i didn’t make the connection until recently myself.]

#pokémon #.txt #blog details #incineroar

[wind/waves starter below the cut.]

[LOOK AT HIM HE’S SO CUTE!!!! i hope he evolves into a salamander but he’s ADORABLE.]

#.txt #blog details

Here's a question .. have you ever encountered a deino that had multiple heads

Would that double the heads the evolutions get?

in theory it’s possible.

technically speaking hydreigon is actually a single pokémon its entire life and only one of the heads (the one it’s born with) is ever fully formed. the second and third heads that emerge are extremely underdeveloped- by the time the third emerges the second has lost its “brain” and the third will never develop one- and mostly exist to respond to stimuli. that’s why zweilous appears to argue with itself a lot, one head (the one that appears dominant and eats the most) is trying to make decisions while the other is essentially just impulsively responding to any sensory input it experiences. the dominant or “real” head also isn’t very intelligent until adulthood and doesn’t really understand that its second head is itself sometimes.

so hydreigon isn’t a conjoined twin in and of itself and if conjoined deino were born they might have extra heads by adulthood. in practice though, i doubt you’d ever see conjoined deino. hydreigon typically only lay one egg at a time because if multiple deino hatched together they would all just eat each other. not only are twins (in this context meaning two individuals that shared an egg) extremely rare, when they occur one almost inevitably eats the other shortly after hatching and often doesn’t survive itself either because of injuries sustained while eating its sibling or because of nutritional issues from sharing the egg. twins can occur spontaneously but the likelihood of producing them is also influenced by genetics, so the fact that most twins don’t survive to adulthood makes their existence much less common. and without twins you can’t have bicephaly.

deino development is also very complicated because of how drastically its body will change over time. most of the components for the extra heads and their migrating placement on the body are there from hatching, so i would hazard a guess that conjoined deino would probably not even survive incubation because the complications of both twins developing in one body would just be incompatible with life.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #answers #deino #zweilous #hydreigon #unova #kalos #galar #paldea #[i took a lot of liberties with this one i dont know what the fuck im talking about.]#[this pokémon isn’t really like a real thing it’s based on mythology i think.]#[zweilous dex entries are true to bicephaly in real life but other than that…]#[this is also morbid…sorry.]#[this condition is rare for a reason and is often a death sentence even for human beings.]#[although i think we have the best prognosis for conjoined twins of any species.]

in pokémon, conjoined twins (better known as bicephalic or two-headed pokémon) are most common in snake and turtle pokémon.

these pairs rarely survive in the wild and have a slightly better prognosis in human care, facing issues such as dissent or violence between the individual heads and difficulty moving, eating, and drinking. in human care, however, there are cases of these pokémon living a full life once they adapt to their condition and receive the care and assistance they need to do so.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #[the shock! he’s not dead!]#[this is all i have for now tho lol.]

although sandaconda is generally listed as having an average length of about 12.5 feet/3.8 meters, that number kind of buries the lede on just how big these pokémon can get. boasting one of the most extreme sex-biased size differences of any reptile pokémon, female sandaconda can be more than twice as long as their 10-12 foot male counterparts.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #sandaconda #paldea #galar #[y’know i base my sandaconda stuff mostly on green anacondas but tbh it looks more like an indian rock python…]

because their breeding behavior is so distinct from that of poliwhirl and politoed, poliwrath leks typically consist almost entirely of poliwrath with the occasional female poliwhirl arriving to breed. on the other hand, male poliwhirl and politoed will form mixed-morph leks in places where both morphs can be found in relative proximity to each other. male poliwhirl in these cases stand little chance of outright victory over male politoed, whose deep, screaming calls and tall hair-like crests (yes, that is flesh, not an actual hair) are more attractive to females of both morphs. however, poliwhirl nonetheless gather when they hear a politoed chorus in the hopes of intercepting females while the popular politoed males aren’t looking. this strategy is surprisingly effective and may result in more male poliwhirl experiencing reproductive success than in a poliwhirl-only lek. observations of poliwhirl congregating at the site of calling politoed gave rise to the popular folk science belief that politoed command poliwhirl as their servants.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #politoed #poliwhirl #poliwrath #[this is actually a really common phenomenon in real life. theyre called satellite or sneaker males.]#[the common side-blotched lizard is an especially distinct and fascinating example of this.]#rotomblr #kanto #johto #kalos #unova #kitakami #isle of armor

the way that poliwhirl breed is slightly different depending on their morph. all 3 morphs congregate in leks, or an aggregation of male pokémon competing over mates, and signal for females with deep mating calls. however, while politoed and poliwhirl complete for female attention with their calls and looks, poliwrath engage in violent male/male combat with the winning males earning the attention of and right to breed with females.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #poliwhirl #poliwrath #politoed #[this was inspired by the violent breeding behavior of the african bullfrog.]#[unfortunately it often ends with males injured or dead but it looks so fucking silly.]#[it’s like. frog wwe or some shit.]#rotomblr #kanto #sinnoh #johto #unova #kitakami #island of armor

venusaur is an ambush predator. to hunt, it starts by digging large holes in the dirt. then it buries itself almost completely, taking on the appearance of shrubbery. finally, venusaur releases enticing scents from its flower, luring in pokémon that it snaps up. its hornlike protrusions and green coloration help it remain camouflaged and hidden from its prey. a voracious, slow-moving, and somewhat lazy pokémon, venusaur spends much of its time in this position.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #kanto #venusaur #rotomblr #[i think maybe i like venusaur a lot.]#[i think it’s because i like pac-man frogs a lot i think they’re very goofy.]#[idk if i’d ever keep one as a pet i’m not sure i’d ever keep anything but snakes.]#[but they’re really fun animals and i would not mind working with them professionally.]

[just came across @phylogenyforpokemon check that shit out if you’re interested.]

#[phylogeny and taxonomy can be massive pains in the ass so it’s cool someone else is trying to work through that.]#.txt #blog details

many grass-type pokémon have symbiotic relationships with plants that grow in or on their bodies, but many grass-type pokémon can also photosynthesize on their own. how have they evolved this trait? probably in a similar way to plants!

over a billion years ago, early eukaryotic cells (cells with a nucleus) evolved. shortly after their emergence, they experienced something called endosymbiosis with photosynthetic bacterial organisms that eventually became part of the cells themselves, forming organelles within their hosts. these organelles became what we now know as chloroplasts, and this is how plants and plant pokémon such as victreebel (which is pretty much just a sentient pitcher plant, by the way) photosynthesize. somewhere down the line, something similar evolved multiple other times in animal pokémon as well. it’s debated whether these pokémon formed their chloroplasts from bacterial organisms like plant pokémon did, got them from a microscopic plant, or if different species of photosynthetic animal pokémon evolved the ability in different ways.

as an aside, heliolisk is also included in this theory, but it’s classified as an electric-type pokémon because it uses most of its photosynthetic energy to generate electricity and only heavily relies on it for food in dire circumstances.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #heliolisk #victreebel #[never used a non-herp tag before lol.]#[this is true by the way endosymbiosis that became a singular organism is where photosynthesis is believed to have come from.]#[i mean i’m sure it’s more complicated than that but. that’s the gist of it.]#[i hope i dont have like a condescending tone in these also.]#[i’ve been told i tend to overwhelm people with jargon but i never know what to explain and how much to explain it.]#rotomblr

venusaur’s “claws” aren’t actually claws at all- instead, the tips of its toes are highly cornified (dry and hardened). these cornified tips help it dig large holes in the ground, where it spends most of its time.

#pokémon #pkmn irl #.txt #venusaur #kanto

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