Pokemon Go

So Pokemon go has been released for Europe, Japan, US, Canada and Australia letting people become a Pokemon trainer in real life. Now people are walking around town looking for Pokemon, battling and training at Gyms and overall, having a fun time. This left me wondering, are Pokemon are based on actual animals?

And the answer is yes
Let's start with the starter Pokemon and have a Magikarpet ride to find these animals!

Bulbasaur

Well, according to the Nintendo wikia, Bulbasaur is reptilian creature which shares traits with amphibians. And as there are no reptiles that are part amphibian, I moved onto his most defining feature. His bulb.

As the bulb is a plant, this meant that the Bulbasaur was in a symbiotic relationship with the bulb. There are three types of symbiotic relationship, parasitism, commensalism and mutualism. Parasitism is when only one species benefits at the expense of the other. Commensalism is where one species benefits without harming the other. Mutualism is where both species benefit from the relationship. In this case, the bulb is important to the Bulbasaur's growth by providing nutrients and in return, the Bulbasaur lies in the sunlight to help the bulb to grow. So we have figured out that Bulbasaur is based on an animal that has a mutualistic relationship with a plant

So what animal could Bulbasaur be based on?

Could this be what the Bulbasaur is based on?
From https://featuredcreature.com/meet-the-ultra-punk-rock-mary-river-turtle-thats-battling-extinction/
I'm not sure who to give credit to for this photo but if you can prove that you are the original photographer, please let me know so I can put your name in the caption. Also, if you are the original photographer and would like me to remove this picture, also let me know so I can remove it.

That animal is the Mary River Turtle. It is probably the closest to the Bulbasaur in appearance but this is not a mutualistic relationship, it is just some plants growing on a turtle. And this is Onixceptable! (I felt that pun was necessary)

There are many plant/animal combinations in the wild but plants need to get building materials from the ground with roots or if they don't have roots, they have a large surface area to volume ratio. The Bulbasaur clearly doesn't have any roots and the bulb has a very small surface area to volume ratio. I don't think that there any animals that share building materials like carbon, nitrogen and water with plants. So could there be something else that can transfer nutrients from animal to plant?

What about fungi?

Lichens are a composite organism made out of a plant and a fungi in a symbiotic relationship. The plant uses photosynthesis to provide food and the fungi provides the water and nitrogen and will protect the plant in return. So we now have an organism that can transfer nutrients from the plant to the fungi. What about organism that can transfer nutrients from an animal?

Labouls are a fungi that are capable of doing just this. They grow on insects and take nutrients from the blood which is an example of commensalism

So i guess that a real life Bulbasaur does not exist as it's an amalgamation of possibly four species. But going back to the Mary River Turtle, I guess that it is an example of commensalism. It doesn't work the same way as the Bulbasaur does but I think that it's the closest that we can get.

Charmander

Charmander is an amalgamation of the words char and salamander. (Amalgamation is a great word!) In the game, Chamander is a lizard Pokemon but is not a salamander. There is a big difference between the two: salamanders are amphibians and lizards are reptiles. 

Geckos are reptiles too, one possibility is that the Charmander is based on the Red Crested Gecko.

The Red crested gecko
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Gekkoninae_Rhacodactylus_ciliatus_orange.png

The red crested gecko is only found in New Caledonia. According to the Pokemon wiki, Charmanders tend to gather together in hot areas which is similar to the tropical climate and the three disjunct populations in South Province, New Caledonia. Chamanders are also rarely found in the wild, the red crested gecko is endemic to South Province. Endemic means that the species can only be found in one place.

Squirtle

The word Squirtle is a portmanteau (Did I spell that correctly?) of the words 'squirt' and 'turtle' Squirtle is considered a turtle Pokemon so I searched for turtles that bears a resemblance to it. Unfortunately, I could not find a turtle which was blue with a brown shell but the turtle that I thought resembled Squirtle in appearance was the Loggerhead sea turtle.

Baby Loggerhead sea turtle
By O%27Brian Bill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

It has a rounded shell and like all other turtles, they hide inside their shell to protect themselves, like the Squirtle. Unfortunately, sea turtles in general are endangered because of their highly coveted shells, eggs and meat. We can always help groups like the WWF to help protect these marine animals, so not all hope is lost. 

So I hope that was an interesting post about Pokemon. I had lots of fun searching for animals similar to the Pokemon in the game. If you want to help support this blog, please follow and subscribe.

Happy Pokemon hunting!

Tokyo Olympics 2020

As you all know, the 2016 Olympics in Rio are already underway so I thought that this would be a good time to write about the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

How many times has Tokyo bid for the Olympic games?

Tokyo has bid for the Games 5 times in total. 

1. Tokyo first bid for the 1940 Summer Olympics and won but unfortunately could not host the Games due to WWII. 
2. Then they bid for the 1960 Games but they lost to Rome. 
3. 1964 however, was a successful bid and became the first Asian country to host the Olympic Games. 
4. As Tokyo wished to host again, they bid for the 2016 Games but they lost to Rio. 
5. And finally, four years later, they won the bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.

But Tokyo is not the only city that has bid for the Olympics. 

• Osaka tried to host the 2008 Olympics but lost to Beijing
• Nagoya tried to host the 1988 Olympics and lost to Seoul
• Sapporo was given the 1940 Winter Olympics but as WWII broke out, they never hosted it
• Sapporo tried again in 1968 but Grenoble won
• Third time lucky, Sapporo got to host the 1972 Winter Olympics and became the first Asian country to do so.
• Soon afterwards, Sapporo tried for the 1984 and lost to Sarajevo
• In 1998, Nagano won the bid to host the Winter Olympics.

That's a lot of bids.

On September 7, Tokyo won the bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games. Hooray!

Construction work

For the Olympic stadium, they are demolishing the old stadium that was used for the 1964 and build the 新国立競技所 (New National Stadium). Demolition finished in October 2015 and the construction of the new stadium will start this in 2017, to be ready for the Olympics.

Most venues for the sports have been used in previous Olympics, 11 new venues will be built

The Heritage zone is an area where old venues that were used in the 1964 Games will be used again. The Tokyo Bay zone however is a place for future modern development.
5 venues will be in neither zone, most of the venues are the ones that need more space like golf and the football matches.

The events

As well as the usual events, baseball and softball will make a comeback and 4 new events will take place: surfing, karate, skateboarding and sport climbing.

The Olympic logo

As you may have heard, the original Olympic logo had to be changed as it looked too similar to the logo for the Theatre de Liege. So the new logo created by Asao Tokolo is meant to show "the refined elegance and sophistication that exemplifies Japan" according to the Tokyo Emblems Selection Committee. The three regular quadrilaterals are meant to symbolise the "different countries, cultures and the ways of thinking" and the idea of "unity in diversity" according to the organisers

The Olympic mascots

At the time of writing, the mascots for the 2020 Olympics have not been announced but will be updated when it is.

Gooooo Japan! Please leave in the comments what you are looking forward to in the current Olympics or in Olympics to come.