A Light in the Nest

While usually wild Pokemon are unlikely to adopt other Pokemon's offspring, trainer raised Pokemon behave in strange ways. 

The nights have been chilly in this region lately so when this opportunistic Pidgeot saw an apparently homeless and very young Charmeleon the small fire lizard found itself spontaneously adopted.


Adoption is an unusual behavior in wild Pokemon. Most known examples were later revealed to be rather less than kind, such as predatory animals just taking a break from the hunt to 'play' with the prey or the occasional 'cuckoo' species taking advantage to species with stronger parental instincts.

Trainer raised Pokemon that are released into the wild as adults are the only Pokemon that are seen to regularly take in orphaned Pokemon of other species and actually raise them. Hypotheses include the idea that as they were raised with and built teamwork bonds with other species they are able to 'look beyond' species and see a 'child' in need.

Another theory is similar. As the adopting Pokemon was part of a team, the Pokemon seeks to gather some sort of team again to perform tasks it is not capable of doing, creating a group symbiosis. To do so it raises other Pokemon from a young age, as adults of those other species would likely not be safe to approach. 


Edit 12/05/17: Going through old notes and cleaning them out. Was reminded that this piece was drawn based on a request for RaakxhyrShapeshifter - "In any medium you choose, surprise me with a Charmander and/or Pidgeot ^-^ I think that'd be cool to see ."