Toucannon (Pikipek, Trumbeak)

Nukuloloa lydia

Overview

After years of studying the finches of the Galapagos and refining his theory of macroevolution, Charles Darwin took one look at an Alolan toucannon and decided his theory didn’t apply to Pokémon. Princess Lydia Aholo, heir to the Alolan monarchy until its deposition, used the very same pokémon in her argument that macroevolution did apply to pokémon.

What Darwin found most jarring about Alolan toucannon is the sheer size of their beak. Despite being hollow and lighter than it appears, the beak is still heavy enough that most of the bird’s anatomy is dedicated to supporting it. And, unlike the beaks of other birds, it does not appear particularly well adapted to toucannon’s food source. However, dissection of toucannon show that the structure of their beak is remarkably similar to arboreabeak, a species of bird pokémon from the Americas. It is unclear when or how a mostly flightless bird crossed thousands of miles of ocean, but the long period of isolation that followed led to the most unique species in its family.

Princess Lydia’s work on toucannon beaks and feather structure is well documented at an exhibit in the Royal Aviary in Castleton. The descendants of the princess’ toucannon also live there.

Toucannon is often overlooked among serious trainers in Alola in favor of larger or more agile birds such as decidueye, braviary, mandibuzz or talonflame. It still has its advantages. Perhaps its most serious advantage for trainers who don’t expect to remain in competitive pokémon battling after the completion of their island challenge is that it starts out as a relatively powerful pokémon, is easy to care for at all stages of its evolutionary line and stays competitive up to the power levels seen at the end of the island challenge. Unlike decidueye, it can be evolved without requiring its trainer to actively battle indefinitely.

Physiology

All stages of the toucannon line are recognized as flying-types, even though toucannon is not capable of flying long distances. They all hold a placeholder normal-typing per Department of Agriculture standards on birds without compelling evidence for any secondary typing. There is some dispute as to whether Alolan toucannon should quality for a fire or even electric typing, but as their power source is strictly internal and only used to power other attacks the Department of Agriculture has declined to reconsider their ruling.

Pikipek are counter-shaded birds with white feathers on their stomach and black feathers on their back. They have a red crest running from their bill to the back of their head. Their bill is narrow and conical with grey and black patches.

Trumbeak lose the red stripe on their head in favor of a large tuft of black feathers. They gain a red ring of feathers around their neck. Their beaks begin to properly segment and gain external rings of bright colors.

Toucannon only have white feathers on their chest. Their crest disappears entirely and they gain patches of yellow feathers on their cheeks. The red feathers on their body shift from their neck to the area right above their tail. Toucannon have thicker and longer talons than trumbeak. Their beaks are also far larger and bulkier, growing from narrow cones to something resembling a proper horn. Toucannon can grow up to four feet tall and can weigh up to thirty pounds. Their beaks alone can weigh up to eighteen pounds and reach thirty inches in length.

Toucannon’s beak is incredibly intricate. It is capable of storing seeds and pebbles for long periods of time and chemically altering wood. It also contains several chambers filled with steam. These allow for toucannon to spit out small objects at speeds of up to nine hundred feet per second. The resulting hit can stun, kill or badly injure most pokémon, depending upon their size and durability. Toucannon can accurately hit multiple targets with pinpoint accuracy up to thirty feet away. Due to the weight of their beak, toucannon are only capable of flight for short distances.

Toucannon can live up to sixty years in the wild and fifty years in captivity.

Behavior

In the wild, pikipek are insectivore that supplement their diet with fruit. They are known to practice spitting or dropping seeds upon opponents. Their primary feeding tactic is to carve small holes into wood to find and remove insects. It is believed that they possess some sort of ability to determine the location of bugs from the sound the impact of their beak makes. All members of the evolutionary line have been known to burrow into trees for sport or to pass the time.

Trumbeak are known to incessantly vocalize, even during the wee hours of the night when they should be sleeping. They are prone to repeating any sound they hear to the greatest extent their beak an manage. Trumbeak that live near brionne choirs are known to get into hours long singing contests with their amphibian neighbors. These vocalizations are facilitated by their increasingly complicated beak. Trumbeak primarily live on a diet of insects, but fruit can comprise up to forty percent of their diet.

Toucannon flock to forests with the oldest of trees. They then dig intricate tunnels and caverns into the trees. They can even build sealed passageways and multiple rooms through their ability to turn wood shavings into a hard resin with their beak. Toucannon spend most of their day looking for fruit and most of their nights sleeping in their nest. When they find fruit that is too high to reach from the ground, they will attempt to shoot down the branch it is on. If this fails they will settle for snapping the tree through repeated bites. Toucannon are neither particularly curious nor playful in either the wild or captivity.

Husbandry

Toucannon are rather easy to care for at all stages of the evolutionary line. They don’t seem to mind pokéballs so long as they are properly fed. Bonding with them usually entails giving them adequate food for long enough that they will accept partnership with you. Having musical talent and being willing to sing to them, especially as trumbeak, also helps.

Pikipek and trumbeak can be fed insect mix sold in all Pokémon Centers. Berries, live crickets and worms serve as good treats and rewards. Trumbeak will require fresh fruit to make up at least 30% of their diet. Toucannon will only eat fruit, although some have displayed a fondness towards brightly colored cereals. Fruit provided to them must be fresh as no stage of the evolutionary line drinks water.

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It is recommended that all stages of the evolutionary line be allowed to forage for at least some of their diet. The reasons for this are two-fold. The first is that it’s a cost saving measure and cuts down on the amount of heavy food that needs to be carried around on trails. The second is that pikipek and trumbeak will obsessively peck at all wood they find. They can be trained to not peck some types of wood through negative reinforcement (loud noises for pikipek, squirt bottles for trumbeak). However, they will resume pecking that wood again unless given a suitable outlet. Trees in parks or forests can provide this to them.

Toucannon will want a nest if they are held in the same area for more than three days. They will attempt to build one unless given an enclosed space big enough to hold at least two toucannon. Ideally the nest will have a trap door to block light but allow for entry. These nests can be purchased at most pokémon goods stores, but they are neither cheap nor easy to carry. Some Pokémon Centers will have toucannon boxes available for rent. If you are staying in one place for an extended period of time on a journey and cannot use a Pokémon Center’s box, it may be cheaper to rent storage unit, line blankets on the floor and provide adequate food. The door should be left unlocked and the toucannon should be taught how to open and close it. They can be taught to use keys if necessary. Toucannon will not defecate inside of their nest.

Toucannon can be quite clever. They just prefer not to use their higher thinking to solve problems.

While toucannon don’t defecate as much as dartrix, they still produce waste that will need to be cleaned up. Pikipek and trumbeak can be house trained, to a degree, through negative and positive reinforcement. Toucannon will defecate wherever they want, whenever they want. In nature this helps spread seeds around. This could be attributed to simple natural instinct, but they have a habit of looking their trainer dead in the eyes and huffing while they do it, and then maintaining eye contact until it is cleaned up. It is suspected that they do this to assert autonomy and/or dominance.

Toucannon that have been held in captivity for up to a decade have successfully reintegrated into the wild. If for whatever reason you don’t want to keep a toucannon at the end of your journey, they can be dropped off at any place their stage of the evolutionary line inhabits (see Acquisition).

Illness

Toucannon illnesses typically have symptoms of diarrhea, labored breathing, sudden loss of feathers or a sudden loss of interest in food. Should these symptoms arise, immediately withdraw the toucannon into its pokéball and take it to a veterinarian as soon as possible. Some diseases can be fatal within three days. While the frequency and severity of illness declines as a toucannon ages, they can still result in permanent injury or death if left untreated.

Evolution

Pikipek naturally mature into trumbeak over the course of two to three years. The formal demarcation line between pikipek and trumbeak is the disappearance of all red feathers on top of the head.

Trumbeak flash evolve into toucannon after they have gained a certain amount of life experience through combat, problem solving, vocalization, and foraging. The exact triggers are not well understood. In the wild this often occurs around one year after the evolution into trumbeak. In captivity it can occur in as little as three months.

Battle

In the wild, adult Toucannon prefer to defend themselves by firing small rocks until the threat stops moving or goes away. In captivity, this is often a felony. All but the most experienced of trainers will struggle to keep a toucannon acquired from the wild in its final evolutionary state from simply killing any opponent it can. With proper training in restraint, toucannon can be one of the fiercest competitive pokémon available in Alola. Their niche is primarily in shutting down hyper-offensive teams that often lack a pokémon that can take the equivalent of ten low-caliber bullets a second. Toucannon are also capable of taking quite a few hits and using their beak to burn or batter anything that comes too close.

No ranked trainer currently uses toucannon and they have little presence in competitive battling circuits. Their natural offenses, while phenomenal in amateur battling, are only above average for a ranged attacker used by professionals. They also have very limited options to dent the armor of steel-types. This leaves them unable to pierce many of premier walls. Even with tailwind support toucannon are not very agile. Outside of protect and substitute they have few ways to dodge attacks that come their way. Toucannon still have a small niche in shutting down some variants of hyper offense, but their strengths just aren’t strong enough to give them a more prominent role.

Pikipek’s greatest strength in battle is their relatively high speed and maneuverability for a young and easily trained pokémon in Alola. Their pecks are far more powerful than they seem and pikipek should be trained to pull their punches in battles against powerful opponents before they are allowed to fight pokémon of their own strength. Even holding back, a pikipek can easily stay out of reach of melee attacks before dropping in to deliver a barrage of pecks fast and powerful enough to knock out most young pokémon in a few rounds. However, it takes a pikipek a moment to regain altitude and they will be vulnerable during this phase of the battle.

Trumbeak are prone to showing off through taunts, mid-battle preening and overly elaborate aerial maneuvers. Trainers are encouraged to let them do this in all but the most serious of battles, as it has been shown to boost their mood. Trumbeak rely on a mix of diving peck attacks and aerial barrages of seeds. The aim and force of these shots is far less powerful than in an adult toucannon, and at this stage much effort should be focused on getting them to hold back.

Acquisition

Pikipek can be captured or purchased with a Class I license. They can be found by waiting in almost any public park or forest in Alola for five minutes.

Trumbeak are rarer due to the sheer number of predators that pikipek have (vikavolt, rattata, yungoos, ariados, some canines, most felines, and a handful of other birds). They can still be found over almost all of Alola. They can be captured or purchased with either a Class II license or a Class I license and completion of at least one island’s Grand Trial.

Due to the relative rarity and longevity of wild toucannon, as well as their difficulty to tame, wild toucannon have a very limited season, strict annual quotes and require a Class III license to capture or purchase.

No healthy specimen at any stage of the evolutionary line may be adopted. Licensed shelters will simply release toucannon to the wild that can be released to free up space for rarer pokémon, or those that don’t fare well upon reintroduction. Adoption of injured toucannon is handled on a case-by-case basis.

Breeding

Toucannon mate for life. At the start of spring, a female toucannon enters her nest and lays ten to twenty eggs. The male seals her inside using a resin made in his beak. They drill a small hole in the barrier. The male returns to the nest every day and regurgitates food in for his mate and young. If the male fails to return for two days, the female will blast open the wall of the nest and abandon her young. Should the male continue to return, the female will stay inside of her nest for five months before emerging with her young. The parents stay with their pikipek for an additional two months before abandoning them.

Relatives

There are several species related to toucannon in the Americas.

These relatives tend to have only slightly larger beaks than trumbeak, less vibrant colors and larger, more powerful wings. They resemble fearow more than toucannon. These species, usually known as arboreabeaks, have varied beaks and diets, but all of them share a basic morphology, typing and defense strategy. Arboreabeak can release projectile seeds, but they have nowhere near the accuracy and power of toucannon. As such, they rely mostly on their beaks for self-defense. They tend to be more prolific breeders and have shorter lifespans than toucannon.

Most species of arboreabeak can produce viable offspring with toucannon.