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The rationale behind this is the fact that since A-Mankey and A-Primeape are shown to be mimicking human society through operating a shop, it would imply that they can learn to be pokemon trainers
The idea has been recently suggested within the games themselves, with Oranguru, but people have been questioning it for longer with Alakazam.
Using a pokemon's sprite as a trainer's sprite would also not take up additional space, and it would add a neat element to the game. The Pokemon as trainers could either be spread throughout the region or even concentrated into one area as a reference to the famous book "Animal Farm", an allegorical retelling of the Soviet Union's history, in which animals begin taking on human traits
A Slavic region would also be ideal to introduce this,as much research was made on animal behavior, with the likes of Pavlov.