Entry 13 – Yungoos

-.-.-.-.-.

Name (Unovan): Yungoos – "young" and "mongoose"

Name (Kantonese): Youngoose – same as above

Dex Number: 013

Classification: Mustelid, Loitering Pokemon

Species: Glutovenator impatiens – "impatient gluttonous hunter"

Primary Type: Normal. Yungoos has no elemental affiliation, cementing it firmly as a primary Normal-type.

Secondary Type: N/A

Overall Description: If you visit Alola for more than a few days and don't know how to identify a Yungoos by then, then I don't know if that's impressive or just sad. The most common small mammalian Pokemon in Alola, Yungoos is easily distinguished from Pokemon of similar size by its long, slinky body covered in tawny fur. A single stripe of yellow-gold fur runs along its back from its head to its tail, and another down its neck and belly. The head is small and round, most of it taken up by its enormous mouth (which is filled with razor-sharp fangs). Its four legs may be short, but it is a deceptively fast runner, and its ears are small, but its sense of smell is keen enough to make up for that.

One of the first things you'll notice if you're raising a Yungoos, or have spent enough time in the rural or wilderness areas of Alola, is that it is an incredibly voracious eater. A common fact given by Pokedexes is that much of its internal anatomy is taken up by its stomach. While this is true, it is not the direct cause of its ravenous appetite. Rather, the opposite is true. Due to Yungoos's high metabolism, it must consume more food than other Pokemon its size in order to survive, and so its stomach has evolved to be bigger in order to accommodate larger meals. In those rare times when it has fed itself to satiety, Yungoos will find itself too weighed down – and "filled out", so to speak – to move until it has digested.

Far more often, Yungoos is a lean, mean, eating machine. Its body is flexible and sleek, far more so than any feline Pokemon's. Its layer of fur is also smooth and makes it look thicker than it really is. By a combination of its own flexibility and its fur acting almost like a lubricant, Yungoos can slip into tight crevices and move freely through twisty tunnels better than you'd think was possible. It uses its own agility and maneuverability to great effect in its day-to-day life, which revolves mostly around hunting and not being hunted.

Yungoos' most impressive adaptation for its constantly active lifestyle are its triangular fangs, enormous for a Pokemon of its size. A Pokemon that needs to eat as often as Yungoos can't afford to be picky with what it comes across, and so its teeth are designed to crush, tear, and chew up almost anything that enters its mouth. These teeth are deeply rooted and unlikely to be pulled free when Yungoos is struggling with its prey, and also give it a superb grip when tackling something larger than itself. They inflict deep wounds on smaller Pokemon and cause more damage the longer Yungoos holds on, so bigger Pokemon that try to shake it off can find themselves with grievous – although not always life-threatening – injuries.

Personality: Being constantly hungry would certainly have an effect on your temper, and so Yungoos is usually aggressive and mean. Like other Normal-types, Yungoos is still perfectly tame and can be trained fairly easily. However, this Normal-type will quickly turn its fangs on its allies if they tick it off. Making it angry isn't hard to do, especially if you've only just recently caught it from out of the wild. This tendency to bite even when it's in a relatively good mood does nothing to help its already sour reputation amongst the people of Alola.

However, this doesn't mean that Yungoos can't be trained – it's just a little more impulsive and tenacious than most common Pokemon. Keeping it well-fed is a must, since the hungrier it gets, the shorter its temper becomes. In worst-case scenarios, a starving Yungoos will even try to attack and eat its Trainer, or at least take a juicy chunk out of their leg. Unfortunately, incidents like this aren't as rare as they should be. It's easy to forget that this small Pokemon needs more food than average, and so ignorant Trainers are more likely to get attacked. This has led to people mistaking Yungoos for a berserk, untrainable Pokemon and releasing it. It doesn't help that Yungoos is so easily accessible that it's often a beginner's first catch.

When it's not hungry, Yungoos is harmless, if a bit grumpier than most. It's not a social Pokemon, but it's also a fast learner and will work as part of a team when the situation calls for it. Just remember to keep the more curious or hot-tempered Pokemon away from it, otherwise Yungoos will probably end up starting a fight when it lashes out at them.

Habitat: Yungoos can be encountered in great abundance on every island in the archipelago. While there is no particular habitat that Yungoos prefers – wild ones have been spotted everywhere from urban environments to the base of volcanoes – they seem to be most plentiful in grassy or partially forested areas, with plenty of tall grass or bushes for them to hide in.

One would never think that Yungoos could not be found in Alola at all over twenty years ago, but the truth of the matter is that they are not native to the region, like many of the species that were introduced by the settlers of Kanto and Johto when they colonized. They are not from Kanto either, however – they were intentionally introduced from another region, which I will cover in greater detail below. In the present day, Yungoos is so common that it is widely considered a pest.

Yungoos has no set territory, at least in the traditional sense. Rather, this Normal-type remains constantly on the move, wandering between locations where food is most plentiful. Individual Yungoos take different pathways between each spot, choosing the paths where it knows it has the best chance of running into something edible, but some believe that it actually prioritizes paths where it is less at risk of encountering a predator (see cited research articles on Yungoos territory choices based on food versus safety). Regardless of its reasoning, it takes Yungoos a long time to come up with a good map of its habitat, but once it does, it diligently patrols these same areas day after day. It has incredible stamina, necessary for it to keep up such constant activity, and even then it becomes so exhausted that it frequently just collapses where it stands when night falls. Once it awakens, it can pick up right where it left off.

(Where the classification "Loitering Pokemon" came from, I'll never know.)

Diet: With an appetite that is very rarely satiated, Yungoos will cram whatever it can into its mouth to be crushed and digested. As noted before, its teeth are well-suited to crunching up almost any edible matter, be it berries or Pokemon flesh. Yungoos is an active hunter that, despite technically being omnivorous, prefers fresh prey and will go after other Pokemon whenever it can. It will attack anything smaller than or the same size as it without hesitation, chasing them down before overpowering them with its immensely-powerful jaws. Yungoos is well-equipped for this hunting method – its flexible body enables it to follow its prey wherever it tries to hide, and it has the stamina to keep up a lengthy chase. Its absolute favorite meal is Alolan Rattata, which it kills easily with a powerful bite to the skull, although the two species seldom cross paths due to being active at different times of the day.

Yungoos will also go after Pokemon larger than itself (although not too much larger) if it's feeling hungry enough. Pokemon up to the size of a Marowak will find themselves subjected to a violent attack, during which Yungoos will latch on with its fangs and refuse to let go. Its foe's struggles will cause the wounds made by Yungoos' fangs to deepen and/or widen, resulting in massive blood loss if it can't get away quickly enough. The grievous wounds cause prominent scars if the victim survives the encounter. Particularly desperate Yungoos will attack humans in this fashion as well, so be very wary when wading through thick underbrush or tall grass.

Interestingly, Yungoos don't seem to have any interest in Alolan Raticate. On the flip side, Alolan Raticate can and do eat Yungoos. This changes when Yungoos evolves into Gumshoos, which Alolan Raticate is terrified of.

Relationship with Humans: Yungoos isn't much loved by the general population of Alola. It tends to be ignored at best and scorned at worst – the latter most frequently when it's found inhabiting an urban area. Their aggressive nature and constant hunger often lead them to steal food in public areas and even invade peoples' homes in search of sustenance. Basically, Yungoos is considered as much of a pest as Joltik and Bunnelby in other parts of the world. It puts stress on the local environment, it's bothersome – sometimes even dangerous – and it's absolutely everywhere.

This is ironic because when Yungoos was first introduced to Alola, it was very few in number and actually welcomed by the natives. This was because before the introduction of Yungoos, Alola was suffering from a very different kind of pest problem. The Kanto and Johto settlers that colonized the islands had brought hordes of Rattata and Raticate with them, which devastated the local environment with their ravenous appetites, constant gnawing behavior, and potential to spread diseases. Yungoos, at the time, was a little-known Pokemon that was recognized by biologists to be a prolific hunter of small mammals, so a fair few were collected and shipped to Alola in hopes that they'd take care of the foreign pests.

Well… it backfired. We're still not too sure what exactly went wrong, but the end result was the Rattata and Raticate developing nocturnal lifestyles to avoid the diurnal Yungoos, becoming the Alolan Rattata and Raticate that exist in Alola today. The Yungoos, meanwhile, found other food sources and exploded in number to the point where they simply couldn't be exterminated. Fortunately, the predators of Alola are now familiar with this new species and dine on it regularly, and Alolan Rattata as well. (But this has still done little to curb their numbers.)

This ravenous Normal-type has had such an impact on the environment that many once-common Alolan species have restricted ranges and require conservation aid from the Aether Foundation. In fact, when it was decided that the Aether Foundation's main branch would be moved to the Alola region, it was Yungoos and various other invasive species that formed the basis of their reasoning. There are simply that many endangered Pokemon in Alola, thanks to human activity and the introduction of foreign Pokemon, and thus the Aether Foundation's conservationist activities are needed here more than anywhere else.

Battle Prowess: Yungoos is weak by Pokemon standards, but against unevolved opponents, it can hold its own. Except for its attack stat, none of its battle properties are anything to write home about, but it is worth mentioning that Yungoos can be tricky to defeat with its flexibility and stamina, allowing it to wear its foes down under the guidance of a clever Trainer. It prefers close-range fighting with moves like Tackle, Bite, and Pursuit, but also has several status moves that are common amongst small Normal-types – Leer, Sand Attack, and Odor Sleuth are all there to help Yungoos beast even larger foes in combat.

Yungoos can have one of several different abilities to give it an offensive edge. Strong Jaw doubles the power of any move that involves the use of its powerful teeth, and Adaptability lets it… well, adapt to its opponent and gives its Normal-type moves an additional power boost. Stakeout is the third ability, and it's only been found on Yungoos and its evolved form. If an opponent retreats in battle, Stakeout allows Yungoos to get the jump on whatever comes out to replace it, nailing it with a surprise attack. This is more useful in battles against other Trainers than against wild Pokemon, since wild Pokemon are unlikely to have allies backing them up.

Affection: As detailed above, Yungoos isn't naturally social and tends to be aggressive, thanks to its immense hunger driving it to constantly hunt. It's also low on the food chain and isn't usually too enthusiastic about interacting with anything that's significantly larger than it – unless it's starving enough to try and take a bite out of them regardless. In its calmer moments, Yungoos can still be irritable and standoffish, but that doesn't mean it's incapable of showing affection. When your Yungoos allows you to make physical contact with it and willingly curls up against you to sleep, that means it feels safe around you and trusts you to protect it. Feeding this Pokemon is obviously the best way to get close to it, since seeing you as a source of good food will discourage it from attacking you out of hunger and convince it that you care about its well-being.

While Yungoos can certainly harbor feelings of affection towards its Trainer, there is no record of this Pokemon developing romantic attachments to them. Additionally, Yungoos is not yet mature enough to breed and successfully raise offspring.

Special Warnings: None. Well, not quite. Make sure you remember to feed it regularly. Four meals a day with some snacks in between should keep it from biting your hand off when you try to pet it.

Professor Kukui's Words: "Yungoos' Bite is worse than its bark, oh yeah! Keeping this feisty Pokemon is almost more trouble than it's worth, but some beginners find that its sheer strength against other unevolved Pokemon makes up for the Pain Split! Just make sure it has plenty to chew and Swallow, yeah?"

-.-.-.-.-.

AN:

I normally don't care about the standard "early-game rodent/small mammal" in every game, but I like Yungoos. I find its smooth, slinky design really appealing, and its "grrrrr" expression is strangely endearing. Besides, mustelids are cool.

Yungoos: "Goos goos! Want reviews!"