>>41633062This.
It's pretty easy to imagine the first few generations of starters as wild creatures. In fact I'd argue all of them from Gen 1-5 could easily be imagined in colonies and as a species, barring one or two.
However in defense of Gen 8 I'd say Rillaboom and its line could easily exist as a colony of musical apes that groove out. The pokedex even alludes to this. Cinderace and co. could also work with some minor tweaking. It's still way harder to imagine than, say, a forest of Bulbasaur.
