Pokémon is an undeniably successful franchise with almost 1 thousand different pocket monsters. It takes a lot of creativity to come up with so many creatures.
All that inspiration must come from somewhere, right? And it certainly does.
Many people don't know, but a lot of those creatures are based on real-life animals. Even the weirdest ones.
Today, we bring you 5 best Pokémon that were based on super weird real-life animals:
Torterra: A Pokémon based on The Mary River Turtle
Torterra is an enormous 4-legged Pokémon that is clearly a huge turtle with trees on its back.
What many people don't know is that its design was heavily inspired by a real animal! The actual turtle is worldly-known as The Mary River Turtle.
This creature has green hair on its head. Some really old ones might show green areas on other parts of the body that make them look like they're carrying vegetation on their shells. This is most likely what caused the inspiration to make Grotle a Grass Type Pokémon.
Wooper: Pokémon version of the Axolotl
Also known as The Mexican Walking Fish, axolotl was clearly the inspiration for the goofy and loveable Wooper.
The axolotl is an amphibious salamander, which is most likely why Wooper is a Ground/Water-type. In case you want a real-life Pokémon as a pet, go for an Axolotl.
They're actually kept as pets by many people! Just make sure not to put them in a tank with a fish. Their external gills easily attract fish. Since the axolotl is a very slow animal, it is usually incapable of defending itself.
Drowzee: Not based on Elephants as Many Think, but on Tapirs
The tapir is a large, herbivorous mammal. The shape of its body is similar to a pig.
And it has a trunk-like nose, a very noticeable characteristic of the Pokémon named Drowzee.
In Japanese folklore, it is said that tapirs eat dreams and nightmares, which is most likely how Drowzee ended up with this name in Pokémon!
Heliolisk: Pretty Much an Electric Frilled Lizard
The frilled lizard, also referred to as the frill-necked lizard, is the clear source of inspiration for the Heliolisk.
It is unclear, though, why they chose to make this desert Pokémon an Electric-type, but things do not always make a lot of sense in Pokémon.
Either way, their looks, the species, and the sort of region they're from just confirm that the Pokémon was indeed inspired by this desert lizard from Australia.
Krookodile: Not just a Generic Crocodile
This extremely aggressive Pokémon is based on a fish-eating crocodile. The Gharial is a very distinct kind of crocodile.
There are no other creatures to them that are part of the same species. Male Gharials can grow up to be almost 20 feet long. They also have this distinctly shaped maw that you can also see in its Pokémon counterpart, Krookodile.
Final Words
Did you know that all these Pokémon had real-life counterparts? Did we forget any really interesting ones?
Please let us know of other Pokémon that should have been on this list!
