It is annoyingly common when walking through Unova's deserts to be bitten in the foot by a Sandile. Sandile bites are not particularly dangerous in themselves, except to the elderly – their jaws, designed for small local pokemon, are not strong enough to break the bones of a healthy human – but their bites can certainly sting. It is vitally important for travelers to walk off any Sandile bites, for although the Sandile itself will not continue to bite one once it has identified their species, the harsh deserts they call home remain as deadly as ever.
It was once believed that Sandile were primarily scavengers, and their bites to human feet a means of hobbling prey until they expire from dehydration or heat exhaustion. But although Sandile do scavenge prey when it presents itself – as most desert predators will, for the sand preserves nutrients remarkably well – their diet consists primarily of live pokemon, some larger, some smaller, which are first immobilized by their jaws and then slain by further bites. The ability of humans to continue moving after Sandile bites, if at an often fatally slowed pace, disqualifies them from being prey animals, for Sandile have poor endurance and are incapable of keeping up with even a crippled desert traveler. And reprisals from future desert crossers, especially pokemon trainers, make this an extremely inadvisable way to help other Sandile find food.
In truth, Sandile bite feet not out of any hunger for man, but because standing only a foot above the oft-swirling desert sand, they find it difficult to distinguish humans from the large, lumbering pokemon such as Darmanitan which they consider prey. Tales of man-eating Sandile are nothing more than myths spread because many humans find it impossible to believe that they were bitten by accident.
