The rocky peaks of Alola have always proven hard to traverse; when visitors from the wider world first arrived, they dismissed tales of their existence as rumors, convinced that no one could possibly cross the mountains of southeast Ula'ula. Even when this location's existence was conceded, many alleged that its population arrived from the air on the backs of flying pokemon or uphill from the Secluded Shore. For they could not fathom that any pokemon could carry people and supplies over the punishing terrain now called Alola's Route 12. Only when Mudsdale arrived in zoos and safari zones abroad did global science accept the old tales that people first settled those villages riding a remarkably hardy pokemon, whose feet, caked in mud, were invulnerable to nearly any terrain.
Humans have often sought to benefit from the protection of Mudsdale's mud; mud-brick construction in desert areas often relied on Mudsdale mud, and the material had to be painstakingly maintained or even scavenged from graveyards after the species' local extinction. Alola, where Mudbray and Mudsdale long outlasted their extinction elsewhere, is also notable as one of the few lands which receives rain to utilize mud as a building material. For although Mudsdale mud will ultimately erode, and can not provide permanent structural integrity in the presence of precipitation, it can cushion homes against earthquakes and storms before it is replaced – and replacement is not difficult in towns where nearly every family keeps a Mudsdale, as was once required by law.
In recent years, Mudsdale mud has become a popular export as an ingredient in everything from makeup to insulation. But Mudsdale mud is just as famous when attached to their owners, for, as trainers around the world have learned the hard way, it also protects them remarkably well in battle!