Disclaimer: What? Pokemon belongs to Nintendo? Oh darn.
A/N: Completely redone from its initial version.
Common Name: Exeggcute, Tamatama (eggs), Exeggutor, Nassy (adult), "The Walking Jungle" (colloquial)
Scientific Name: Corticicutis cocoiovis
Description: Exeggutor is a large pokemon, standing six and a half feet tall on two legs. These pokemon have thick, pear-shaped bodies, and are covered with bands of rough tan scales. Exeggutor's legs have two clawed toes on each foot, and they have no other limbs. On the upper back and between the Exeggutor's heads (see below), the pokemon have several long, flexible, strap-like quills, much like feathers without the barbs. These quills are deep fern green at their base, and often fade to a paler green at their tips. Exeggutor's heads are cream-colored and smooth, with a short beaklike mouth and wide eyes. They have sharp, strong teeth.
As alluded to above, Exeggutor display an extreme version of sibling conjoining. Most commonly, 3 Exeggutor triplets conjoin, but up to six conjoined siblings have been recorded. The only outward sign of this conjoining is the multiple heads that emerge from the top of the Exeggutor, though internally Exeggutor may have multiple hearts, lungs, divided stomachs, etc. The bodies of Exeggutor with more conjoins tend to be wider to accommodate the greater number of organs.
In addition to adult Exeggutor, clutches of eggs, called Exeggcute, can be seen. These are groups of (invariably) six eggs, each one six inches long and with shiny peach shells covered in dark brown and white markings. These markings most commonly resemble faces, with rosettes that look like eyes and slash-like marks that look like mouths. Older Exeggcute show yellow patches and cracks on the pink, due to degradation of their protective pink coating.
Range: Exeggutor are found widely in Johto, but are nearly extinct in Kanto, persisting in only a few protected areas. A population can also be found in the Sevii Islands.
Habitat: Exeggutor live in lowland, broadleaf woods.
Call: Exeggutor have very loud calls, consisting of guttural lowing and rolling trumpets: huWEE hurra hurra WEE hurra hurra. Each head can call individually, and the sound of them all calling at once, often off–rhythm with each other, can be truly cacophonous. These pokemon call most in the breeding season or when asserting dominance during feeding.
Exeggcute are completely silent, though the psychically-sensitive have sometimes reported hallucinations of high warbles and squeals when in close vicinity to the pokemon.
Diet: Adult Exeggutor are opportunistic scavengers. They usually stake out a territory of forest, and take any carrion within it. Exeggutor spend much of their time utterly still, in a state of near-hibernation, provided perfect camouflage by their treelike appearance. They only seem to move when they psychically sense a pokemon dying in the vicinity, which they home in on with great accuracy. If the prey pokemon is not quite dead yet, they are willing to help it along, so long as by doing so the Exeggutor will not endanger itself. Exeggutor will feed off of fresh or rotten fruit as well, and will memorize the locations of fruit trees and when they ripen.
Exeggutor's bald heads are perfect for sticking into a large carcass, and their multiple eyes work to keep a lookout for competitors or predators. Since each head has its own brain and drive to eat, Exeggutor usually need to allow each head to feed for a time.
Exeggcute live off of their yolks.
Life Cycle: Exeggutor mate in spring, after weeks of raucous calling, and lay several clutches of six identical Exeggcute in leaf nests.
In their eggs, Exeggcute develop in a unique pattern, and MRI scans have revealed that they become actively psychic long before the rest of their bodies have formed. Little more than brains in a shell, Exeggcute become psychically aware of their surroundings, and become capable of moving with a form of telekinesis. Though they usually stay put in the vicinity of their nest, they appear to 'orbit' erratically around each other when stressed or agitated.
Exeggcute in the same clutch are psychically linked, and even when separated they will track for miles to reunite. Upon reaching a certain stage of development, the clutch of Exeggcute gather close together in as protected a location as they can find. There, they fuse.
First, receptors on the outside of their protective coatings link, then digestive enzymes eat a hole in the shell where they link. Eventually, the Exeggcute forms a lumpy mass of fused eggs, in which the embryos, each one only half-formed, slowly conjoin. Depending on how many members of the clutch survive, the resulting embryonic Exeggutor may have up to six heads, but in most environments Exeggcute clutches lose a few members to predation or accident before maturing fully. But as long as at least three survive, the pokemon can mature. A pair of Exeggcute or a singleton cannot develop correctly, and if hormonally induced to will usually perish.
After as little as a week after fusing, the infant Exeggutor hatches and begins moving about, behaving nearly identically to the adult.
Exeggutor may live up to 30 years.
Relationship with Humans: The most prevalent myth surrounding Exeggutor is that they reproduce by dropping their heads, which is blatantly untrue. Exeggcute are not only much smaller than Exeggutor's heads, but they are a different color.
Exeggutor suffer from habitat destruction and over-collection, which has been much more rampant in Kanto than in Johto. Exeggutor are attracted to areas with a lot of human garbage and pokemon corpses, a description fit perfectly by the popular training routes. Combined with Exeggutor's popularity in the arena, training routes become a population sink, attracting the pokemon from wilder areas only to be captured. The species is considered threatened in Kanto, but is still populous enough in Johto to be unlisted.
Naturalist's Notes: No other pokemon that shows regular conjoining does so in the same method as the Exeggutor. Other species achieve it in the same way as the spontaneous conjoins found in humans and other pokemon, but Exeggutor conjoin after developing for a time as an Exeggcute. The evolution of this 'secondary conjoining' has long been a fascinating subject for research.
Exeggcute, when threatened, will launch themselves aggressively and repetitively at the threat. They also sometimes have numerous negative effects on predator pokemon, though they themselves do not produce toxins. It was recently discovered that Exeggcute repeatedly 'roll' in poisonous plants to infuse themselves with defensive chemicals, and seem to be immune so long as their protective coat is intact. This behavior is spontaneous and not universal amongst the species, so may be due to the availability of nearby poisonous plants.
Exeggcute are eaten by many omnivores and carnivores, such as Nidorino/a, Venonat, Xatu, Marowak, Ekans, and Raticate, but Exeggutor are too large and well-defended by their camouflage and psychic abilities to fall to most predators. Scyther and Scizor may occasionally target them.