These five Pokémon are based on strange real-life animals
Meet the weird inspirations for your favorite Pokémon
Pokémon come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them have some form of real-life inspiration they are based on, be it an object, a plant, or a living and breathing animal. These inspirations range from the cute and adorable to the straight-up weird – life is sometimes stranger than fiction and there are lots of creatures out there that might as well have sprung out of some Eldritch horror setting.
We’d like to highlight some of these cool pairs and the stories behind their origins, so get ready to meet five of the weirdest real-life animals that were made into Pokémon.
5 Pokémon with strange origin stories
Charmander
Nincada, Ninjask, and Shedinja
Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Poliwrath
Drowzee
Slowpoke and Slowbro
Sometimes this entire cycle also works backwards: Meet the real-life species that were named after Pokémon.