Passimian
Superpatera bradi
Overview
Passimian are critically endangered in their homeland of Madagascar. Their relative ease of care and popularity as performers lead to a large captive population. This has further imperiled them on Madagascar but leading to smaller feral communities popping up around the globe.
Passimian are relatively social, compliant primates with a fierce competitive spirit. This has long made them popular for trainers on journeys. They are still primates with many of the associated problems such as aggression, a constant need for enrichment, and the risk of zoonotic disease. Still, trainers who want to test out primate husbandry or need a fast fighting-type for their team may find passimian to be more than worth the hassle.
Physiology
Passimian are classified as pure fighting-types. The designation is not disputed.
Passimian are arboreal lemurs. Most of their fur is white with black skin on their limbs and black bands on the shoulders and tail. Their tongue is purple.
Passimian have a number of adaptations for arboreal life. Their hands and feet are relatively large and dexterous. The feet have a large, semi-opposable digit to help with grasping. Their ankles have a wide range of motion. Unlike other arboreal primates, passimian do not have a prehensile tail.
In addition to climbing, passimian are also well adapted to throwing things. Their forelimbs are extremely strong and can be used to throw berries or rocks up to one hundred feet with enough force to wound or even kill their target. Passimian have unusually precise vision for a lemur and can instinctually gauge the trajectory of their throws.
Passimian can grow to be six feet long including their tail and can weigh up to seventy pounds. Wild lifespans are typically around fifteen years in Madagascar and ten years outside of it. Captive specimens typically live for thirty years but can live for up to fifty.
Behavior
Passimian live in teams of twenty to thirty individuals led by a dominant female. Dominance is established by the ability to throw things farther than the other females. The rest of the social order is relatively loose, save for the dominance of females over males. It is very rare for an adult female to treat a male as an equal, much less a superior. The sexes are similar in size and very difficult to distinguish at a glance. Field researchers often use apparent hierarchies as an easy way to sex wild individuals.
During the day passimian teams will split into two smaller groups. One stays back around the nesting site and watches over the young or improves the nests by replacing older bedding with new leaves. The other team goes deeper into the rainforest in search of fruit. Members will change between the two teams depending on the day, although the search team will almost always be predominantly female.
The vast majority of passimian's diet is made up of fruit. The exact diet varies seasonally with availability. Passimian will also eat flowers, nectar, and seeds. They are known to pollinate some species of flower by sticking their snout in to obtain nectar. The pokémon will get pollen on their snout they will spread to other flowers.
Members of the foraging team will spread out over the day but will keep in frequent communication through the use of loud calls in call-and-response patterns or more synchronized choruses. Passimian are one of the loudest known primates and their calls can carry for up to two miles in dense forest.
Passimian's natural defense is to throw objects at their assailant and get away. This usually takes the form of blinding enemies with fruit and then getting further into the canopy. Persistent predators can be hit with rocks or fruit pits to inflict severe and even lethal damage. When in larger groups passimian in the back of the formation will find suitable objects and throw them towards the front to keep the team continuously supplied with ammunition. The constant movement of objects can also disorient predators.
Passimian rarely have inter-group conflicts. Teams grow and shrink with food availability in a fission-fusion structure. When serious conflicts arise they are settled in one-on-one fights between the dominant females. Less serious conflicts can be resolved by play behaviors such as chasing members of the other team around the canopy and pelting them with soft fruit. Passimian also play like this within their own team to practice their marksmanship and teach juveniles how to work with adults.
Extensive tool use has been documented among wild passimian. This includes their use of improvised projectile weapons. It also includes their helmets which are usually split coconut shells worn to protect their head and, perhaps, for fashion. Passimian teams use distinct markings of different plants attached to their fur with saliva to identify themselves. These styles do not seem to be inherited and can change considerably within three generations.
Husbandry
Passimian are frugivorous in the wild. Between seventy and ninety-five percent of their diet is made up of fruit, depending on availability. This can be replicated in captivity. Ideally wild fruits will be used over domesticated ones as the latter contain more sugar and less fiber. If wild fruit is used, nectar, flowers, and seeds can make up the remainder of passimian's diet.
If domesticated fruit is used then vegetables and primate biscuits should make up about half of the diet, with fruit comprising the other half. This ensures enough fiber and nutrients are consumed. Ideally passimian will be fed fruit in the morning and vegetables at night. This provides them with the quick burst of energy they need for the day and nutrients that can be digested while they sleep.
Wild and captive passimian will occasionally eat small amounts of dirt. This provides them with minerals and is not a cause for concern unless it is done multiple times a day or in large amounts. Passimian raised indoors or over unnatural or sandy substrate should be provided mineral supplements.
Caloric needs vary with activity levels. Elderly and sedentary individuals need less food than active battlers. They will still attempt to eat anything they can and are not above subterfuge to get it. Childproof locks should be employed on anything that passimian shouldn't get into. These will often prove insufficient, necessitating full padlocks for particularly sensitive areas.
Passimian should be offered water at least once a day. They prefer having access to it off the floor. In general, passimian appreciate having environments with a great deal of verticality so that they almost never have to go to the ground. An ideal environment will contain nest boxes, a variety of ropes and enrichment objects, and places to feed and interact with the passimian. Live trees can also make a good a habitat. So can some playground equipment. They are large and active creatures that will need a great deal of space. Housing them indoors is not recommended. Unfortunately, they are also very loud creatures. Housing them outdoors in urban areas can lead to noise complaints.
Passimian are social and enjoy playing games with their trainer. Throwing games are their favorite. Humans will never be able to compete with passimian, but they will lose all respect for humans who cannot even aim well at relatively short distances. Trainers wishing to bond with a passimian should practice throwing pokéballs for at least a month before attempting to do so.
In addition to standard enrichment items such as toys, passimian also appreciate having new plants to decorate themselves with. Flowers and pine needles seem to be their favorites, behind coconut shells. Passimian should be provided with a new coconut at least once a week. This provides enrichment, water, and nutrients.
Make sure passimian do not throw the coconut at anything they are not supposed to. A passimian with a coconut can easily kill small to mid-size pokémon and cause serious property damage. Usually passimian will limit their aggression to throwing fruit at nearby annoyances, such as cats, loud dogs, early morning joggers, and delivery vans.
Wild passimian often engage in afternoon sunbathing in the canopy. While they can be very active for a few hours, afterwards they will need to sleep. Nesting boxes at multiple elevations and a platform to sunbathe on can help them relax after a long day of play, training, or battle.
Passimian appreciate other pokémon on the time who will play games with them. This is especially true for pokémon who can challenge them in projectile-based games. This works nicely with canines that enjoy retrieving thrown objects. Male passimian have the least difficulty fitting into teams. Females may fight to establish themselves on top of the hierarchy, potentially causing friction with other pokémon.
Male trainers may have some difficulty commanding the loyalty of female passimian. They can still usually raise males if their competitive spirit and aim are good enough.
Illness
Passimian have similar health problems to most primates. Obesity is less of an issue than many species as they are very active and almost exclusively frugivorous. Elderly and injured specimens unable to exercise may still become obese and susceptible to other health problems later in life.
Cross-species disease transmission is a serious risk. Sick humans should not be allowed to interact with them and vis-versa. Medical care of transmissible diseases should be handled by veterinarians in a sterile environment. Some human vaccinations can be beneficial for passimian.
Tuberculosis is a major health problem in passimian. Anyone who works closely with the species should receive a tuberculosis test once every six months.
Evolution
Juvenile passimian are very similar in build to adults. They reach their full size and sexual maturity around three years of age. No evolutionary stages are recognized.
Battle
Passimian are competitive and more willing than most species to train and fight. As fighting-types and primates they can be deceptively strong for their size. Passimian have the raw strength to tear off limbs and haul heavy objects into the canopy. However, their hands are not built for punching. In the wild they prefer headbutts and slaps in melee combat. They are nervous in close-quarters and will prioritize putting distance between themselves and their attacker over using their great strength. These instincts are very difficult to suppress.
Passimian's thrown projectiles can be strong enough to knock out fragile pokémon in one hit and wound all but the most durable opponents. Unfortunately, most arenas do not have natural projectiles available. Flat battlefields also remove most of passimian's natural mobility options. Moves like rock slide can create projectiles to throw, but they draw on passimian's shallow elemental well. Anything that can catch up to passimian can likely end them in one or two hits. These factors keep them from realizing their full potential in competitive play. They have still seen occasional use, especially in conjunction with a stealth rock setter, but annihilape and hawlucha are preferred as fast fighting-types and lucario is usually the superior option for fighting at range.
On the island challenge battlefields are rarely free of debris and often have a good deal of verticality. Passimian can shine by finding objects and throwing them at opponents while doing their best to keep away and avoid opponent's projectiles. Passimian is excellent at knocking out supporting pokémon in trials. As in competitive they are best paired with a stealth rock setter who can give them more projectiles to work with. Passimian should be trained to grab sharp rocks without hurting themselves and weave around a stealth rock-filled battlefield. These skills are more important than any individual moves.
When playing against passimian it is important to get in close and strike them hard. Faster projectile fighters can try to dodge their attacks while striking back with their own, beating passimian at their own game. Some tanks can simply ignore the hits. Psychic types that can form barriers or teleport can shut down passimian. Gaseous ghosts can also almost entirely shrug off small projectiles.
Acquisition
Passimian are found in Akala's rainforests. Their loud calls make them easily tracked. Passimian do not typically respect the outcome of proving battles. Rather, they want a proving competition involving projectiles. Passimian will often engage in a game where a trainer who can successfully hit them with a ball while they try to evade earns the right to command them. Too many failed attempts will lead to them getting bored and either leaving or fighting back as a team. Most passimian that engage in these games are adolescent males seeking to leave their team. Females, especially adult females, rarely approach humans or regard them with anything but wariness.
Passimian importation is currently banned. Their popularity still leads to a number of dedicated breeders, most on Akala. They can also often be found in shelters as trainers will often abandon their loud, energetic pokémon at the end of a journey. Wild release is prohibited as passimian are invasive.
Passimian can be captured, adopted, or purchased with a Class IV license. Trainers should be aware of local restrictions on passimian ownership.
Breeding
Passimian do not typically mate for life. A willing female will evaluate potential partners and mate with at least one. She may mate with as many as three in a season, although this reduces the willingness of any one partner to assist with childcare. Mate selection usually favors the strongest males, leading to a situation where the dominant female commands the team but the dominant male has the near-monopoly on mates.
After three months of pregnancy, females give birth to a litter of two to six offspring. Passimian form dedicated nests for childcare that are maintained for months at a time rather than rebuilt every few days. The female will not leave her nest for at least three weeks as she relies on the foraging party to bring her food. Even as the offspring become more independent she will still spend most of their time near them and the nest. Nursing females have second priority access to food, after the foragers.
As the offspring age childcare becomes more communal. It is rare for a passimian under a year of age to be unsupervised. The supervisor can be one of their parents, a relative, or an unrelated female. Babysitting is one of the main jobs of the passimian that stay behind during the day.
Passimian are allowed to forage at a year of age, although they will still be closely watched by their mother. More independence is achieved around two years of age with sexual maturity at three. Actual mating is rarely observed before five years of age in females and ten years of age in males.
Cross-breeding is complicated by female's reluctance to mate with males who cannot demonstrate their idea of fitness. Grafaiai should be suitable partners but the cross is very difficult to achieve outside of a particularly lax female grafaiai and a young adult male passimian. Primeape is the most common cross in captivity.
Breeders tend to rely on a fenced off section of forest and a team of ten to twelve males and two to three females. Passimian do not breed well without either a great deal of space or frequent travel.
Relatives
Passimian's closest living relative, the red passimian, S. rufous, was long classified as a subspecies of S. bradi. Red passimian are about 20% smaller than black-and-white passimian and live in larger, looser fission-fusion societies. Their limited range and critically endangered status has made them less common in the pet trade, but they have still have established populations in Florida and Queensland.
Passimian's next closest relatives are the members of family Lemuridae, a group of prosimians native to madagascar. Baoband are the most iconic species. They are visually similar to passimian but have a prehensile tail and more terrestrial lifestyle. Baoband are adapted to the more arid sections of the island. Their calls are slightly louder than passimian and can echo for miles. Over 200 calls have been documented, including several that mimic other species or even man-made objects. This has made them popular with entertainers and led to almost as many invasive populations as passimian.