what ecological niche do the pikachu clones fill that they’re in EVERY region? why are electric rats apparently a keystone species??
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in reply to @asher's post:
I mean…squirrels? Also include mice, rats, and hamsters. Rodents are incredibly successful in real life. And they’re not all electric, Marill is one, basically the local equivalent of a capybara lol
Yeah but each region already has the "regional mammal"– Sentret, zigzagoon, squovet, etc. What makes the electric rat in particular so ecologically significant?
hmmm...sheer cuteness? It's at least canon that Pachirisu is a closely related species to Pikachu, and given that I don't think it's a stretch that all of them are related, so maybe them being electric isn't the important part, it just kinda happened. I think they're just frequently domesticated species where even the wild ones significantly benefit from offerings from humans, making the whole genus adapt their appearance to better appeal to local tastes and continue receiving offerings.
I'd been operating under the assumption that this was convergent evolution, but divergent makes much more sense and I honestly don't know why I didn't consider it before 😂
I really like the idea that there's a lot of pressure to adapt towards what locals find cute! I think that's a really good way to explain why they all look so different, despite having the same basic adaptive features (most of the time)
its like carcinization but yaknow. becoming an electric rat.
thats of course assuming that the pokemon ecosystem isnt already so affected by human intervention that its influencing the wildlife.
Like how all horses are descended of domesticated horses, even "wild" ones. or how pigeons and corvids just do so well in urban environment that their populations seem to thrive there
I was wondering if it was similar to carcinization, but if it is then I want to know the specific advantages that taking the form of an electric rat confers.
And good point about the feral horses/pigeons! Are people just so obsessed with pikachus that, in the name of pet pedigree they've decided to recreate them? Or are they all breeds of Pikachu that have become so wildly distinct thanks to human intervention that they're just considered different species now?
Or is it more like Pikachus are the equivalent of mutts and all the other electric rats are purebred subspecies?
Thinking about potential predators, I can see why electric is such a good tool considering it handles Flying-types (birds). With the only weakness being to ground, it might be interesting to see if pikachu clones share a range with any other pokemon that they have a bad type match up with, or just the pokemon they have strong type matchups with that we might think of as possible predators (a flock of Staravia might easily catch a small Pachirisu and get shocked for it's trouble, but are there any ground type pokemon there that could ignore this defense tool?)
I imagine its a combination of this and urbanization? electric wires r smth you can chew through as a rodent and instead of that being fatal it being smth they can sustain energy from-- alternatively acting as a domestic lightning rod (depending on how far back the little buggers go) is probably pretty good for thunderstorms and protecting the homestead from bad weather, which would lead to them being domesticated pretty regularly
Abundance of magikarp and regional birds creating a niche for a carnivorous mammal with type advantages to both?