>>54978135Real animals used to be canon in Pokémon.
Somewhere around gen 3/4 they decided that Pokémon replace animals wholesale, which makes them drastically less exciting.
Pokémon are meant to be unusual, supernatural, like yokai. It's not like all birds are Spearow or Pidgey; it'd be like if you saw a Spearow that's a crazy powerful monster that preys on regular birds. Even a Fearow, whilst relatively weak in terms of Pocket Monsters, would be on the level of a powerful cryptid.
