Real-life animals with Pokémon-like powers

[Vulpes]

Lest anyone think that real-life animals are boring compared to Pokémon, I decided to make a thread discussing real animals with Pokémon-like powers.

By the ways, let's not bother with powers that a multitude of animals have; I don't want people saying "oh, cats can scratch and bite."

Here are a few I came up with:

Electric fish: Various fishes (such as electric eels, electric catfish, and electric rays) can create electric shocks powerful enough to stun prey, and maybe even kill humans. The Pokémon resemblance here is obvious.

Archerfish: They shoot a stream of water out of their mouths to down insect prey above the water. Many water-type Pokémon shoot water.

Mimic octopus: This octopus can change its color, texture, body shape, and movements to imitate other species, such as sea snakes, sting rays, and jellyfish. This resemblance to Ditto is obvious.

Trapjaw ants: These ants can bite the ground so hard that they are launched into the air. No real parallel with a current Pokémon, but still pretty cool.

Bombardier beetles: These beetles can shoot hot, burning chemicals at predators.

Carpenter ants: Certain species of carpenter ants, when defending the colony, will explode, launching a glue-like substance at their attackers. Obvious Selfdestruct similarity.

I have a few more I might break out later, but for now, are there any that you'd like to share?

 

[PDL]

Pistol Shrimp and Mantis Shrimp (Both different families of crustaceans) have abilties that no current Pokémon has:

The snapping shrimp competes with much larger animals like the Sperm Whale and Beluga Whale for the title of 'loudest animal in the sea'. The animal snaps a specialized claw shut to create a cavitation bubble that generates acoustic pressures of up to 80 kPa at a distance of 4 cm from the claw. The pressure is strong enough to kill small fish.[7] It corresponds to a zero to peak pressure level of 218 decibels relative to one micropascal (dB re 1 μPa), equivalent to a zero to peak source level of 190 dB re 1 μPa at the standard reference distance of 1 m. Au and Banks measured peak to peak source levels between 185 and 190 dB re 1 μPa at 1 m, depending on the size of the claw.[8] Similar values are reported by Ferguson and Cleary.[9] The duration of the click is less than 1 millisecond.

The snap can also produce sonoluminescence from the collapsing cavitation bubble. As it collapses, the cavitation bubble reaches temperatures of over 5,000 K (4,700 °C).[10] In comparison, the surface temperature of the sun is estimated to be around 5,800 K (5,500 °C). The light is of lower intensity than the light produced by typical sonoluminescence and is not visible to the naked eye. It is most likely a by-product of the shock wave with no biological significance. However, it was the first known instance of an animal producing light by this effect. It has subsequently been discovered that another group of crustaceans, the mantis shrimp, contains species whose club-like forelimbs can strike so quickly and with such force as to induce sonoluminescent cavitation bubbles upon impact.[11]

The snapping is used for hunting (hence the alternative name "pistol shrimp"), as well as for communication.

Mantis Shrimp also have the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom.

Why there isn't a Pokémon based on these yet?

 

[Vulpes]

Ooh, good one; I've actually heard of pistol shrimp.

Click beetles: Click beetles can launch themselves into the air using a click mechanism.

Nudibranch: These sea slugs can incorporate the cells of their prey into their body. Some can utilize the stinging nemocysts of hydroids, and one clade, Sacoglossa, can use the chloroplasts it obtains from the algae it eats.

Speaking of hydroids, Turritopsis nutricula can revert to an immature polyp stage after reaching adulthood, meaning that barring disease, predation, and accidents, they are effectively immortal: they won't die from aging.

 

[wy the f naut]

That would be cool. With them, our world won't have to worry much about gun control.

 

[Rakarei]

We need Pokemon based on some of these.