Oranguru
Virsilvae mundiviator
Overview
Oranguru are among the closest living relatives to humans. And, with the possible exception of zoroark, no pokémon has posed a greater challenge to the concept of human superiority to pokémon. Were they more powerful, social, or ambitious they may have attempted to topple human civilization. As it is they are mostly willing to participate at the margins of it. Oranguru are highly independent pokémon that often resent trainers, especially inexperienced ones. At least one has attempted to be a trainer in their own right, leading to litigation that eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States. The Court acknowledged that some species could hold some rights under the Constitution, but also held that they could not sue to enforce those rights in federal court. State courts have usually ruled that pokémon with human comparable intelligence may have a right to own themselves, but not other pokémon. Alola does not recognize a right to self-ownership but does allow for the DNR to require the consent of the captured pokémon for some species. Pokémon captured in a pokéball that is not under the direct, actual control of a human automatically become property of the commonwealth.
Trainers actively seeking a highly intelligent pokémon may be drawn to oranguru. And there are real advantages to adding one to the team. Oranguru are intelligent enough to mostly manage their own care. Most specimens are introverted and do not require constant social enrichment, although many captive specimens enjoy interactions with other species. Females, and some males, are generally good with younger pokémon and even human children. Sometimes they can even be protective of their own trainer.
Oranguru are also independent and prideful. They dislike being treated as subordinate and will sabotage or abandon trainers they don't respect. Generally, there has to be a reason for an oranguru to partner with a human, however briefly. Trainers will need to find and provide that reason to add one to their team. And even if they do oranguru are not the strongest of battlers. Their strategies can make other pokémon more effective, but they themselves will fall off towards the end of the island challenge. If they agree to battle at all.
Physiology
Oranguru are classified as dual normal- and psychic-types. The normal typing is somewhat disputed, but oranguru are capable of wielding a number of elemental energies, and resistant to spectral attack, and have relatively standard animal anatomies. This supports a normal typing.
Oranguru's biology is very similar to that of humans to the point that many human medicines work on them. The primary differences between the species, aside from oranguru's greater physical strength and elemental ability, are in oranguru's adaptations for an arboreal lifestyle. Their arms are 50% longer than their legs. Oranguru's feet have elongated digits that can all move independently of each other like their hands. Their hips can rotate far more than humans to facilitate swinging through the treetops.
In addition to their limb structure, oranguru differ from humans with their full-body fur. Oranguru's body fur is mostly white. They have a cape-like layer of purple fur on their back. The cape increases in length with age, going from scruff around the neck to almost full body length. All oranguru have black skin on their cheeks. In dominant male the skin, known as the flange, grows much larger and more prominent while the fur on the sides of the head falls out. Dominant males are known as flanged males, while subordinate males are unflanged and have a facial structure nearly identical to that of females. Males, flanged and unflanged, are about twice as heavy and 30% taller than females.
Adult males can weigh up to 300 pounds and stand six feet tall. Wild lifespans are typically about 50 years. Captive specimens can live for over 80.
Behavior
Oranguru have long been thought to be entirely solitary. This narrative has been consistently eroded over the last century. Wild oranguru are now believed to live in loose social networks of a flanged male and several females sharing a territory and occasionally interacting. Unflanged males sometimes form small bachelor groups.
They are also reasonably social with other species. After they have eaten for the day oranguru are prone to observing other animals for entertainment, engaging in games with other intelligent species, or even organizing mock battling leagues among wild pokémon where two oranguru will act as trainers. There are few records of this behavior until the development of the mass-produced pokéball, leading to theories that oranguru directly copied the behavior from the humans they had observed.
One captive-born oranguru in Alola runs a mock bar deep in the rainforest where in exchange for labor, fruit, or other items wild pokémon can sit and receive a mix of fruit juices and tree sap. The oranguru will also listen to the problems of wild pokémon and offer advice. The building of permanent structures is rare among oranguru. The conduct within it, acting as sages among wild pokémon that will trade goods or services for solutions, is not uncommon. It has been suggested that the ecosystems of Borneo and Sumatra are actually a complex society loosely overseen by oranguru diplomats and judges. Some scholars interpret an Indonesian legend about an ancient war to be about a conflict between humans and oranguru for superiority. It is still considered prudent to offer fruit to any wild oranguru encountered as they can offer information on recently changes in the jungle humans may be unaware of. Several researchers have attempted to pay oranguru to conduct studies of reclusive pokémon for them. Results have been mixed. Wild oranguru are generally wary of humans and have been accused of intentionally falsifying data to deter further encroachment.
Every night oranguru find a spot in the canopy to rest. They use their arms and telekinesis to pull branches together into a configuration capable of supporting their weight and pile leaves on top. In rainy weather they may create a second overhang above them lined in leaves to keep water off of them. They are remarkably good at assessing the strength of tree branches individually and when woven together.
Oranguru's diet varies over time with the seasonality of berries. In times of abundant berries they are primarily frugivores. Outside of peak berry seasons they shift their diet to bark, leaves, and more fibrous, protein-rich foods. Oranguru can survive indefinitely without fruit in their diet. They cannot live on fruit alone. Even if they can survive without fruit, a chronic shortage of it is one of the leading causes of migrations.
Oranguru have always been travelers. They may have even arrived in Alola on lapras-back before humans arrived. Their fur and intelligence let them survive in relatively cold climates if necessary and they can learn to adapt to a variety of diets and ecosystems. When food and mates are in short supply, oranguru may travel in search of new lands. Following the introduction of fast, long-reaching supply chains, oranguru have mostly bargained with humans for transportation. This has let them establish a wide range. Outside of rainforests and some dense temperate forests, oranguru typically live around human settlements. They can fill a variety of roles in exchange for food, from battling to childcare to science. A few oranguru have even had successful careers as artists.
Husbandry
Oranguru strongly prefer to eat fruit, even if it isn't necessary for their health. They evolved to eat wild fruits. Domesticated varieties are almost always higher in sugar and lower in fiber than their wild counterparts, making them unhealthy for oranguru to consume. Eating too much can lead to obesity and health problems late in life.
It can be difficult to impossible to control an oranguru's diet. Attempts to restrict unhealthy foods can result in clandestine overeating, subversion of their trainer's authority, or escape. Oranguru's intelligence makes them excellent at all three. Captive oranguru are also likely to burn fewer calories through climbing, foraging, and other natural behaviors. The problem is offset for frequent battlers. Other captive oranguru will still constantly be struggling from both ends with risk factors for obesity.
The same strategies for encouraging healthy lifestyles in humans are often effective for oranguru. Some are easier. Oranguru provided with a great deal of climbing area and an incentive to stay off the ground are likely to live fairly arboreal lives, even if they travel less than their wild counterparts.
Ideally an oranguru's diet would primarily be composed of leafy greens, primate biscuits, wild fruit, nuts, and grains. Animal products should be strongly discouraged. In the wild oranguru will occasionally eat honey, eggs, or insects, but never frequently or in large quantities. Oranguru are also prone to becoming addicted to caffeine in captivity. The health impacts of the addiction, if any, are unclear.
Oranguru are quite capable of using toilets and faucets to dispose of waste and obtain water. Almost all oranguru prefer bidets to toilet paper due to their fur.
In general, oranguru are more like roommates than most pokémon. This can be extremely frustrating, in particular for trainers who expect a certain amount of control over their team. Even more accommodating trainers can struggle to deal with a primate that is nearly human but not quite. They hold relatively little respect for privacy or private ownership and will frequently borrow or steal things they were not expressly forbidden from using. Overbroad commands are prone to being ignored. Oranguru are far more diurnal than humans and will resent loud noises more than an hour after dusk. They will frequently rearrange furniture for no apparent reason, only to move it back into its old position within a few days.
Oranguru appreciate having other reasonably intelligent pokémon as teammates, with some exceptions. Dark-types are often dismissed due to oranguru's difficulties communicating with them. Metagross and some dragons are too aggressive for oranguru. Nocturnal pokémon can cause friction due to differing sleep schedules.
Less intelligent pokémon can sometimes invoke oranguru's parental instincts. This is more common for female oranguru than males. In the wild males have essentially no role in parenting. Some captive-born males will become nurturing, but wild-born males often seem to dislike children and anything that reminds them of children.
Illness
The most common health problem for oranguru is respiratory infections. Warm, humid environments can encourage the growth of bacteria and fungi that can lead to infections. Cold, humid environments and long periods of exposure to dry air can also cause respiratory ailments. Furthermore, oranguru can catch most human diseases, including colds and the flu. It is currently believed that flu vaccines are effective for oranguru and should be received every year. Care should be taken to isolate oranguru from sick humans and vice-versa. Signs of respiratory ailments in oranguru are similar to those in humans. Oranguru are also capable of reporting distress telepathically. This makes them relatively easy to diagnose.
In general, most human medicines are safe for oranguru, although the dosages may need to be adjusted. Talk to a veterinarian before using any medication on an oranguru.
Neurological diseases are rare in young oranguru but become increasingly common as they outlive their wild lifespan. In most cases an oranguru with dementia or brain cancer will end their own life. Those that do not may need to be put down. Oranguru are strong enough to easily break bones and even accidentally kill their trainer in a moment of panic or forgetfulness.
Even outside of such extreme cases, brain health is still very important for oranguru. Suicide is the believed to be the leading cause of death among captive specimens, although the overlap with plausible accidents makes this difficult to confirm. Oranguru benefit from having multiple trusted confidants. Depressed individuals can sometimes benefit from therapeutic practices designed for humans. There are still relatively few therapists specialized in working with pokémon and their wait lists can be months or even years long. Oranguru trainers should do their best to be proactive in mental health management rather than simply trying to hire a professional in a time of crisis.
Evolution
There has been some academic debate as to whether flanged males should be classified as a separate evolutionary stage. However, the only external physiological differences between flanged and unflanged males are a small size difference and a few changes to the facial structure. Hormone levels are also altered to reflect their status, although unflanged males can still be sexually mature. The differences are so slight that few scientists consider the two to be different evolutionary stages.
Battle
Oranguru are intelligent pokémon with a reasonable amount of physical and elemental strength. They have still struggled to find a niche in competitive battling. This is partially due to their aversion to violence. Few oranguru enjoy the physical conditioning needed to remain in top form. Fewer still enjoy risking their health on the battlefield, even if the injuries can be healed. They have seen the most success in double battles where they can use supporting moves like trick room while advising their partner on what to do.
In singles oranguru can boost their elemental power with nasty plot and mitigate their slow walking speed with trick room. This takes up two of their moveslots, leaving them relatively little space for coverage. Oranguru do not hit hard enough to overpower more durable opponents without super effective damage, even when accounting for nasty plot boosts. While oranguru possess remarkable physical strength they are very reluctant to fight in close-quarters due to the risk of injury. They can deter frailer enemies that get too close but are unlikely to rely on their muscles for standard offense.
Any trainer capable of earning an oranguru's respect is likely to have a full team of pokémon stronger than the oranguru. The ape may not pull their weight, but it probably will not matter on the island challenge.
Acquisition
Wild oranguru can be found throughout the rainforests on Akala and in a few pockets of lowland tropical forest on Ula'Ula. They rarely go to ground. Trainers wishing to get close to them will have to fly in dense forest or meet them in the trees. Wild oranguru will typically avoid humans who approach. Attempts to pursue may be met with force.
It is usually illegal to capture an oranguru without their consent. Oranguru must have some reason to join a team, then. This is most common in years of scarcity. Unflanged males are the most likely to want to travel and approach a human about facilitating it. While not on the same level as the fairies, oranguru will hold their trainer to any deals made and will exploit the wording of the agreement if they are unhappy with their current situation.
Proving battles are not helpful in gaining an oranguru's trust. Few oranguru are seriously interested in bolstering their combat prowess. Trainers must find something else to offer, from comfortable arrangements to intellectual stimulation. Psychic specialists often have the most luck recruiting and retaining oranguru due to their intelligent team providing an enriching set of companions. Ghost and fairy specialists are the second most successful due to the general intelligence of their pokémon, even if they have no specialized experience in dealing with psychic-types.
Oranguru are not a good introductory pokémon. Trainers without experience with either primates or species with human-comparable intelligence should refrain from attempting to capture one.
It is exceedingly rare for a shelter to hold an oranguru. Generally, an oranguru without a trainer will either retreat into the wilderness, find themselves another trainer, or try to survive on their own in a human environment. The only oranguru that will find themselves in a shelter's care are very young specimens in need of a surrogate. A handful of oranguru around the world run their own pokémon shelters. They do not put themselves up for adoption.
Opportunities to purchase an oranguru are exceedingly rare, often illegitimate, and questionably legal.
Oranguru can be obtained with a Class IV license and the pokémon's consent.
Breeding
Wild oranguru live in loose social structures of a flanged male and nearby females. The females will usually mate with the dominant male when they desire offspring. Dominant males rarely initiate relationships and simply wait for females to come to them.
Unflanged males have to take a more aggressive approach. They will often attempt to copulate with a female involuntarily. When unflanged males are present, females are more likely to cluster closer to the flanged male in an effort to ward off attacks. Females are physically capable of killing a male in a compromised position but rarely do so. This has led to scientific debates on how unwanted the advances of unflanged males really are, a question that male and female oranguru have given mixed or non-committal answers to. Females seem less resistant to an unflanged males advances when they are not in estrous or are otherwise incapable of conception.
Oranguru are one of the only species known to deliberately terminate unwanted pregnancies through the use of mildly poisonous plants. Some nations have attempted to arrest or euthanize oranguru for terminating pregnancies. Others, even those with strict abortion bans, do not criminalize the behavior in oranguru due to different codes of laws governing humans and pokémon.
After an eleven-month pregnancy, the mother will give birth. There have been documented cases of twins in the wild and captivity, but it is believed to occur in less than 3% of cases. Most females will keep both offspring, although some will seek a surrogate for one. The baby oranguru will spend at least four months in continuous contact with their mother, clinging to her fur at all times. At four months they may begin to explore within arms reach of their mother. By ten months they are capable of climbing on their own but will not leave her sight. Oranguru do not achieve any measure of independence until they are about eight years old, at which point they may be allowed brief periods of unsupervised exploration. They are still expected to stay in their mother's nest until they achieve full independence at fourteen or fifteen years of age. Oranguru mothers nurse their offspring until they are roughly eight years old, among the longest known nursing periods of any pokémon.
Captive breeding of oranguru is difficult. Females will only mate if they believe they will be secure for over a decade. Attempts to impregnate them through an unflanged male or artificial insemination are highly likely to result in a terminated pregnancy. Oranguru react poorly to attempts to manage their selection of partners. Any manipulation must be subtle enough that they do not notice it, something easier said than done when dealing with telepathic great apes. Oranguru will not accept any assistance with childrearing or even childbirth, seeing offers from humans as insulting.
Offspring that are rejected by their mothers for whatever reason can be assigned to another oranguru. Most females that do not currently have a child of their own will agree to take in an orphaned or abandoned infant. They can also be hand-reared by humans, but this usually results in maladaptive behaviors. Infants expect to be held at all times and become distressed when not in close contact with their surrogate mother. Any level of stress in the first three months of life can result in serious health problems.
Cross-breeding with rillaboom has been recorded, usually with unflanged oranguru mating with a female rillaboom. Rumors of oranguru-human hybrids have persisted for centuries. No credible evidence has emerged for the existence of a hybrid and there are serious questions as to whether it would even be possible.
Relatives
Relatives of oranguru once ranged across China, India, and Southeast Asia. The largest of these relatives, Gigansvir adsilvum, may have weighed up to 2,500 pounds, making them the largest known hominid. The family was reduced to a single species confined to the Indonesian islands in the immediate aftermath of the most recent ice age. As temperatures warmed and rainforest-dwelling hominids went extinct, oranguru began to spread again to fill the niche they left behind. They are currently most abundant in Indonesia and mainland Southeast Asia with small wild populations in rainforests across the world.