Whilst skimming through PokéDex entries I discovered something interesting: The natural world of Pokémon functions like our own. There is fightinh, overcrowding, competition, predetors and prey. The following PokéDex entries are just a few examples.
Wurmple
>Often targeted by bird Pokémon, it desperately resists by releasing poison from its tail spikes.
Sneasel
>It feeds on eggs stolen from nests. Its sharply hooked claws rip vulnerable spots on prey.
Magikarp
>For no reason, it jumps and splashes about, making it easy for predators like Pidgeotto to catch it mid-jump.
Slowpoke (Slowbro)
>When a Slowpoke went hunting in the sea, its tail was bitten by a Shellder. That made it evolve into Slowbro.
There are more examples which I will not list, but you get the idea. In the Pokémon world there are predators (Pokémon like Slowpoke) and prey (Pokémon like Wurmple). Some Pokémon hunt, and some have evolved (no pun intended) defence mechanisms to ward off the hunters. But what does this mean?
It means that the Pokémon world has a food chain. Aggressive Pokémon like Sneasel will attack, kill and eat more passive Pokémon like Mamoswine, which in turn will try to defend themselves. This is an interesting idea, since it means there is a more realistic world of Pokémon outside of Trainer battles.
A little bit about food chains; there's a top and there's a bottom. The bottom is always, always the producers, or the plants. Every organism above that is a consumer. A consumer is any organism that feeds on other organisms. This category includes carnivores, herbivores, scavengers and decomposers.
Producers – Organisms that sustain life through teh energy of the Sun (trees, bushes, cacti)
• The first category does not include any Pokémon. It is simply made up of all the normal trees, grasses and Berries you see in any Region, meaning that Trevenant, Servine and Cacnea are not producers, but consumers of some sort. While some Pokémon do photosynthesize, the energy they create are simply by-product, while the Pokémon's actual diet consists of other life forms, be it leaves or Leavannys.
Decomposers – Organisms that break down the carcasses of other life forms into nutrients (fungi, bacteria).
• One of the smallest groups of Pokémon, the decomposers are those that resumble fungi. This would include Shroomish, Parasect, and Foongus. There is no direct evidence to support the existence of decomposers in the Pokémon world, but logic says that there has to be.
Scavengers – Organisms that feed on the already-dead bodies of other living beings (vultures, worms).
• Probably the most unsettling category, the scavengers of the Pokémon world are those who prefer a day-old Gogoat carcass to a fresh one. This would include creeps like Mandibuzz and other vulture-esque Pokémon.
Herbivores – Organisms that feed on producers (deer, elephants, wombats).
• The herbivores of the Pokémon world are extraordinarily numerous. This would include any and all Pokémon whose diet is strictly plants, such as Tauros, Combee, Tropius, Mamoswine, Buneary and Kangaskhan.
Carnivores – Organisms that survive by hunting, killing and consuming other organisms (lions, leopards, hawks).
• This is a positively massive category. It consists of any Pokémon that feeds exclusively on other Pokémon. Sneasel, Growlithe, Tyrantrum, Talonflame, Sharpedo, Staravia… the list goes on. Carnivores are what lead to my big question, but first let me show you two more steps on the Pokémon food chain…
The Abnormal – Organisms that rely on a unique food source.
• This contains Pokémon like Sableye, who feeds on crystals and precious metals, and Drowzee, who feeds on dreams. I would also put Cacturne in this category, since it's appetite moves beyond other Pokémon and on to humans.
>If a traveler is going through a desert in the thick of night, Cacturne will follow in a ragtag group. The Pokémon are biding their time, waiting for the traveler to tire and become incapable of moving.
The Unknown – Organisms with no known food source.
• What does Groudon eat as he lies dormant in his volcanic abode? What is the diet of Giratina, the only denizen of the Distortion World? How could Mew stand to eat an innocent Weedle, its own flesh and blood? How the heck does Aegislash eat anything? These are the Unknown; what they feed on is a mystery.
Onto my big question.
Going back to carnivores, let me go a tad bit more in-depth. Within the category of "predator" there are different classes; while the spider lives by catching flies, so does the sparrow live by catching the spider. Then the snake eats the sparrow, the eagle eats the nake, and so on. But what eats the eagle? Nothing. The eagle is the apex predator. An apex preditor is the most powerful, most invulnerable, most feared creature in its ecosystem.
This lead me to wonder: What is the apex predator of the Pokémon world, if one exists?
Legendary Pokémon like Arceus and Ho-Oh are eliminated, since they live on a whole other plane entirely. So just what is the top predator in the Pokémon world? Haxorus, with his deadly axes? Charizard, with his fiery breath? Or could it be Gengar, whose ability to travel through shadows makes him virtually invincible? Perhaps it's the soul-sucking Dusclops…
What is the apex predator of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos?
I was inspired by this
Apparently there's confusion on what an apex predator is. I will explain again. An apex predator is the top predator, the one that hunts everything else. Nothing, I repeat nothing, actively hunts the apex predator. That's not to say it can't be killed; a starving python will attack and kill a lion if it's desperate. It's just that the lion doesn't have to watch his back constantly, since there is nothing in ot's environment that includes "Lion" in its everyday diet.
