>>53796171There are animal pokemon, but no regular animals. There are plant pokemon, and also regular plants. Well I say there are no regular animals, but there are still humans, who aren't pokemon. But no other primates exist, besides those that are pokemon. Some pokemon are literally aliens or inorganic constructs or magical spirits, so they aren't limited to just being animals/plants anyway. Some were even created by humans. So the definition of pokemon is very wide and merely overlaps with familiar fauna/flora, rather than being a 1:1 replacement for it.
They were retarded for doing this retcon instead of just having it so monsters and ordinary animals simply coexist in the setting, like in the early anime. It would have been far easier to reconcile both worms and wurmple existing in the same universe than this retarded hodgepodge they're stuck with now. Just make pokemon semi-rare and normal animals common but not magical.
