>>56504835NTA, but the thing is that Pokemon didn't have a very well-established world at the beginning, even the anime had to take a lot of liberties and that's why there are more references to real animals in the first series, as the franchise matured this world began to take shape and the decision was made to replace those old references to the real world and adapt them to its growing universe.
This is the reason why Santa Claus had a group of Ponyta for his sleigh, because a reindeer Pokemon had not been created yet, when Stantler was created the Ponyta were replaced, the same for Lt. Surge or Mew with references to our world, America was replaced by Unova (BW2) and Guyana by an island (E), as well as the Indian elephant was replaced by Cooperajah, or the case of the Fairy type in the anime, while Dark and Steel were introduced as new types, the characters behaved as if Grandbull, Clefairy, Gardevor, and Togetic had always been Fairy, no surprise or explanation.
This is probably done by the company to have its own identity, or simply to avoid controversy, within the core of the series these Retcons have never been explained, the new public accepts it as a fact and we the older fans have no choice but to revisit the old games if we want to remember the old lore.
Personally, I find these retcons funny, I like to see what the Pokemon version of objects, fauna, professions, or cultures of our world is.
