Pelipper (Wingull)
Overview
A handful of species have established nearly global ranges. For the most part these are small and hardy pokémon. Few have the power or majesty to attract worship. Yet pelipper plays a central role in several world mythologies and have earned the fear and respect of sailors the world over.
Pelipper are widespread and worshipped because of their almost unique ability to manipulate wind and rain. In the wild, they congregate in groups of hundreds or thousands and beat their wings and use water attacks in coordination. This can change wind currents and bring rain. Some captive pelipper have been taught to do something similar on their own, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Alolan mythology holds that pelipper came to Alola alongside humans. Indeed, there is some evidence that Polynesian cultures may have tamed pelipper as hunting companions in much the same way canine and feline pokémon were tamed and used elsewhere.
The parallels to dogs and cats are easy to see. Pelipper are social and relatively intelligent. Wild pelipper do not have clear hierarchies, but their communal nature makes them adapt well to captivity. They eat many of the same fish species as humans and can learn to hunt in tandem. However, they have never been properly domesticated anywhere in the world. While pelipper can respect and use humans they are proud and unruly and even the most docile refuse to submit completely to anyone, bird or human.
The attributes listed above make them a decent choice pokémon for beginning trainers. They also make for an excellent gateway to raising and battling with flying-types, although it should be noted that pelipper generally do not get along with other species of birds.
Physiology
Wingull have rather simple builds. They have long, flat, and straight wings. These are useful for gliding and catching thermal updrafts. Wingull beaks tend to be about as long as their core body. They have short trains of several long, blue feathers.
The core body of a wingull is rather small and contains a short digestive tract, heart, and air cavity. This cavity functions as both lungs and a swim bladder. Curiously, wingull do not need to breathe. Instead they can intake air from small slits beside their beak and release it through similar slits on the posterior. They can only do this while flying. While grounded or swimming, they must breathe through their beak. Due to the small size of their air cavity wingull cannot hold their breath for long. As such wingull seen out of flight will usually be gaping with their beak wide open.
The vast majority of a pelipper’s body is made up of their bill and supporting organs. The Alolan pelipper’s bill is pink and looks like a large scoop, with the upper half of the bill forming a nearly flat lid. Pelipper do not have a proper stomach. Instead, they pump digestive acids into the bill itself and digest it there. Because of this pelipper have to land shortly after filling their bill with food in order to safely digest it without the risk of acid sloshing outside of their very durable bill. A pelipper with a full beak is also quite heavy, making it difficult to fly even with aerokinesis. Pelipper’s lungs are much stronger than wingull and allow them to breathe even if their mouth is closed for several hours. Their nostrils are located beneath their eyes.
Pelipper have waterproof pale blue feathers. They have short, thin legs and webbed feet. Unlike most other subspecies, the Alolan pelipper has a trail of feathers that it uses to sense the wind. Alolan pelipper also have a much longer wingspan and wing surface area than any other subspecies. As the largest and heaviest subspecies, they need large wings to catch air currents and stay aloft. Between these changes, the Alolan pelipper looks more like a conventional bird of prey than other subspecies do. There is a theory, preliminarily supported by DNA tests, that the pelipper in Alola may have had widespread interbreeding with toucannon and mantine in the past. At present wild pelipper infrequently leave their flock to mate with another species of bird pokémon. The resulting offspring are sometimes reproductively viable and are often accepted into a pelipper flock if they wish to join.
Pelipper can have a wingspan of up to 1.8 meters and a mass of 30 kilograms. They usually live for eight to twelve years in the wild and up to twenty in captivity.
Behavior
Individual pelipper have moderately powerful aerokinesis and water elemental abilities. In large groups they can combine their gusts to form large, powerful storms that have minimal impact on individual pelipper. It is unclear exactly how they manage this coordination as they do not appear to possess a hivemind and, while intelligent, there are far smarter birds that cannot coordinate as well as pelipper can.
Pelipper’s storms are their primary means of hunting. Their preferred food are wishiwashi. Turbulent waters disrupt wishiwashi’s ability to school, making it hard for them to defend against pelipper scooping them up. Other surface-dwelling fish such as finneon and luvdisc are also often unable to navigate well during pelipper storms.
The Alolan pelipper is more audacious in confronting other birds than any other tropical subspecies. They will often swarm the rookeries where migrating birds congregate. Roughly two-thirds of the flock will keep up a powerful storm to ground or disorient the adult birds. The rest will swoop in and try to make off with eggs or young birds. Braviary are generally able to power through the winds and can easily take down a pelipper. Mandibuzz have taken to roosting further inland or placing their nest inside of a crevice or other area difficult for pelipper to reach. Hawlucha and delibird have fewer adaptations, forcing them to live within the same range as braviary or dragons to stand a chance.
Pelipper have a few predators themselves. Talonflame are skilled fliers that mind water far less than other fire-types. They are known to kill pelipper for food and sport. Vikavolt show a particular resentment towards pelipper and hodad will sometimes cull pelipper colonies that get too brash. Pelipper are salamence’s favorite prey; there is very little even a flock of pelipper can do against a large airborne dragon.
The Alolan pelipper is the only subspecies that does not rest in cliff faces or trees. Instead a flock descends upon a beach and makes itself at home. On most days scores of pelipper can be seen wandering around Hau’oli Beach. They sometimes wander into the city to explore. If provoked pelipper rear up and start flapping their wings while honking as loud as they can. This summons more pelipper who engage in the same behavior. Grounded pelipper are not particularly strong but this scares off most predators that attempt to attack their nesting grounds.
If intimidation does not scare predators away some pelipper will spew the acidic, partially digested content of their bills at the attacker. Because this costs them a meal it is a last resort.
Husbandry
It is best to obtain a pelipper as either an egg or a wingull. They will be ornery regardless, but the younger a pelipper is exposed to humans the less aggressive it will be. Generally, pelipper are tolerant of their own trainer after a few days, weeks or months of adjustment. They will also usually harass any other human they come across using the method detailed in the Behavior section.
Pelipper are perfectly tolerant of pokéballs during the night and the bulk of the day. They prefer to be fed in the morning and be given a few hours to sit still and digest food. When necessary, pelipper feedings can be pushed back until the afternoon or evening to allow for a morning battle. However, they will be somewhat aggressive until fed. Wingull are more tolerant of their pokéball than pelipper and are far more tolerant of varying feeding schedules.
Wingull and pelipper should be fed diets consisting largely of fish, poultry and eggs. Some wingull enjoy berries, but the birds cannot digest them well enough to be primarily herbivorous. Pelipper tend not to enjoy anything but meat and eggs. They should be fed roughly half the volume of their bill every day and the full volume after strenuous battles or training.
Once a pelipper has adapted to having a trainer they will typically demand nearly all of their trainer’s time when they are outside of their pokéball. They do not tend to play with other pokémon aside from other wingull or pelipper. As such many pelipper trainers find it easier to keep a mated pair than an individual.
Pelipper are clever. However, their lack of a functional beak or talons means that most bird enrichment items will not work for them. Some trainers have reported that pelipper will push around and harass a beach ball for hours at a time treating it like a living organism intruding upon their territory. In general visually interesting objects or items a pelipper can shove away make for the best toys.
Wingull are even more curious and playful than pelipper. They also have a much more useful beak. Puzzle items that require manipulation to obtain treats are always popular with the gulls. Small eggs or seeds make for good rewards. Wingull can also be target-trained, biting at items in exchange for food. More than anything, wingull enjoy being allowed to fly around an area and explore it. However there are many predators willing to attack a solitary wingull. If a wingull is allowed to explore they must be supervised (ideally by an electric- or ice-type that can scare other birds away).
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Wingull and pelipper do not have an anus. Instead, they dispose of waste by regurgitating it. Wingull can be housebroken and taught to do so outside or in a specific location. If they did not learn as a wingull, pelipper will refuse to learn on principle. Because their digestive processes are not particularly efficient, a pelipper can produce a lot of waste. Trainers of non-housebroken pelipper should be prepared to have to clean it up at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places.
Illness
Because their beak is not good for grooming, pelipper struggle to keep parasites at bay. In the wild the fierce storms pelipper fly in clear away lice and fleas.Captive pelipper that have not learned how to create a storm on their own do not have this advantage. It is important for trainers to brush their pelipper once every two to four days. Unfortunately, pelipper have a strong dislike for having their feathers touched even by trusted humans. But an unbrushed pelipper will quickly develop disease or feather problems that make it harder for them to swim or fly. While these can be medically treated, it is ultimately easier to just regularly groom your pelipper, however unpleasant it may be for everyone involved.
Evolution
Pelipper has a combination of normal growth and flash evolution. Wingull steadily increase in size after birth. After they gain enough experience with flight, aerokinesis and their environment, they undergo flash evolution into a pelipper of roughly the same mass. They then steadily grow until they reach their final size.
In captivity, wingull evolution can be sped up by providing them with plenty of toys and chances to explore. Learning new moves and battling also accelerate the process. Conversely, an everstone can keep a wingull from evolving. There is some evidence that wingull learn skills more readily than pelipper and they are generally easier to keep in line. Some trainers have kept their wingull from evolving for the full course of their life with no apparent side effects. However, pelipper are far better battlers. Trainers on an island challenge should evolve their wingull at the first opportunity.
Battle
Pelipper are far less powerful on their own than in a flock. The Alolan pelipper’s size makes it better at fighting alone than most subspecies but it will still take extensive training to teach one to summon and control storms. This is the primary advantage of capturing a wild pelipper; they will have been taught by other pelipper since birth how to master the winds. Trainers willing to exchange more hardships in husbandry for a simpler training process should keep this in mind.
There are many other pokémon that can alter the weather on small temporal and spatial scales. Some, such as castform and politoed, are even better than pelipper at summoning rain. But pelipper is the only pokémon in Alola that can instinctively whip up a full storm, gale-force winds and all. Other birds can be taught to summon rain and provide wind on their own, but their rain tends to take longer to summon and then falters shortly after they leave the field. When all of this is taken together, pelipper is easily the best cornerstone for rain teams on the competitive circuit.
Pelipper functions as an arena-controlling zoner in battle. They take to the skies and spend most of their time and effort controlling their storm. When they must attack directly they fire off water-attacks or manipulate gusts of wind into striking their opponent. A skilled pelipper trainer will only have their pokémon land to use roost. Most pelipper on the competitive battling scene carry toxic and scald to wear down opponents over time.
Pelipper still have two glaring weaknesses. Electric-types can usually target and knock them out easily and pelipper have few options for defending against thunderbolts. They are also not fast movers on the ground and must be in the air to control their storm. Once the first thunderbolt knocks them down to earth, they can very seldom get back up before they are knocked out entirely. The second weakness is to more imposing birds or dragons. As in the wild braviary, talonflame and salamence can usually fly through a pelipper’s storm and land a quick knockout in close-quarters combat.
In addition to their role as a rain-setter pelipper are good at taking down teams that only have a rock or ice type as their bird check. However the recent rise of vikavolt has been horrible for pelipper and for rain teams as a whole.
It is extremely unlikely that a trainer on the island challenge can teach a pelipper to summon a full storm before they complete all of the trials. Pelipper are neither bulky nor powerful enough to hold their own after the second island. They still make for excellent pets after the challenge ends but trainers should manage their expectations during the actual challenge itself.
Absent a full storm pelipper function as relatively bulky but weak birds. They should try to stay in the air as much as possible and rely on wind and water attacks to take down opponents from a distance. If they do get knocked down pelipper have few good options up close. Their main defense mechanism in the wild, regurgitation, requires feeding the pelipper a large meal before battle. This keeps them from flying and also only works once. As such it is not a particularly good strategy. Toxic and scald are the best moves for the amateur’s pelipper. Whirlwind is an option for warding off losing matchups. Despite these tricks, when pelipper find themselves at a disadvantage they often lose spectacularly and quickly. It is unlikely they have a chance to land a whirlwind.
Wingull play very differently from pelipper. Generally they will need to get up close and strike with their beak. Wingull also have rather weak wings and need assistance to get into the air. The solution to this is that a trainer should toss their wingull at the start of the match. Then all effort should be put into making sure the wingull stays airborne. A grounded wingull can still often hold their own against weaker opponents through intimidation displays and pecks but they are much less useful than a wingull able to circle their opponent and wait for the opportune moment to strike.
Acquisition
Wingull and pelipper are found on practically every beach in Alola, except for areas where braviary are actively breeding. They also avoid the black sand beaches on Ula’Ula. Wingull require a Class I license to adopt or purchase and a Class II license to capture. Pelipper require a Class III license to capture, adopt or purchase. Trainers should be warned that approaching a pelipper flock with the intent of capturing a wingull or pelipper will likely lead to a confrontation with the entire flock. It is best to pick on isolated pelipper off exploring.
Wingull that have grown accustomed to captivity generally fare poorly in the wild. Some pelipper owners eventually decide cleaning up after their pet is more trouble than it’s worth. As such there are usually wingull and pelipper in the major pokémon shelters. These birds will also have already acclimated to people and been housebroken (if possible). The easiest way to obtain a wingull or pelipper is to adopt one.
Alternatively, the Seafolk sell pelipper that are trained to manipulate winds on their own. They typically charge between $5,000 and $10,000 for one. This prices out most trainers on an island challenge, but established trainers who want to explore rain teams may be interested.
Breeding
Pelipper mate for life. Generally a male interested in a female will go out and hunt well before dawn, before the flock wakes and conducts their own hunt. The male will fill up their bill with fish but not begin digesting it. They will then swim to shore (it is usually too difficult to fly solo with a full beak). The male will find their prospective mate and present them with the catch. If the female accepts it, they will begin to stay close to each other at all times, seldom getting more than 15 meters apart.
Pelipper breed at the height of rainy season, typically in January or February. Most migratory birds are absent at this time. The female lays a single egg each season. The parents will spend most of their time huddled around the egg. If small predators approach one parent will leave to harass them away. If a large predator is spotted near the flock half of the birds will take to the air and attempt to force them away. The other half will guard the eggs. Similarly, half of the flock will leave each morning to hunt. They will then share part of their catch with the partner watching the egg. Males and females alternate hunting and defense duties.
It is impossible to identify the sex of a pelipper or wingull without very close examination of their genitals. This is best done by a veterinarian while the bird is under anesthesia. The procedure is viewed as elective and nurses at public centers will charge for it. Unless a trainer wishes to breed their pelipper it is easiest to just randomly assign a gender. The pelipper will not understand or mind.
Trainers who do wish to breed their pelipper are encouraged to get their pokémon tested. Then they should adopt or purchase a pelipper of the opposite sex. The male should be given the chance to hunt on their own until they court the female. Females are pregnant for roughly three weeks before laying their egg, which will take another month to hatch. Once the egg has been laid neither member of the pair should be withdrawn into their pokéball or disturbed outside of feedings.
Pelipper are devoted parents to their wingull for the first two months. The parents will behave very aggressively towards anyone except for their trainer during this time and one should always be outside of their pokéball with the child. Around the two month mark the parents will begin losing interest and the wingull will become essentially independent. Normal husbandry routines may be resumed at this time.
Subspecies
Most of the eight subspecies of pelipper are rather similar to the Alolan pelipper. They have slight differences in build, color and behaviors to adapt to their environments, prey and predators. Only one is particularly notable.
The blessed, or African, pelipper is the most migratory subspecies. They seldom settle down for long, preferring to constantly travel across the continent bringing heavy rains. The blessed pelipper flies at night and collects moisture. Their wingbeats and winds can sound like drums and whispers, respectively. One of the oldest pelipper in the flock stays above the clouds, occasionally dipping down to communicate with the others. It is believed that this elder is navigating by starlight. Just before dawn, the flock abruptly stops and circles in place. They unleash all collected moisture in a single, powerful rain. Then individual members of the flock begin to swoop down and pick on anything scurrying for shelter. They also scavenge any fire types killed by the torrent.
The blessed pelipper rests during the day. They are the most curious and intelligent subspecies and some individuals will wander to nearby settlements to exchange songs. The blessed pelipper is very skilled at manipulating sound using their throat pouches and they have a very good individual and collective memory. Anthropologists have taken to eavesdropping on blessed pelipper flocks to learn long-forgotten words and ancient melodies.
Once a year, all of the blessed pelipper fly to Mt. Kilimanjaro. They intermingle and breed there. Members are exchanged between flocks and, at the end of breeding season, they all rise above the Serengeti in one massive swarm of birds before dispersing again. One female remains on the mountain and waits there for the rest to return.