Ambipom is a purple, simian Pokémon with two tails, each with a large, rounded hand with three red-tipped fingers. The tails also have a cuff of a rounded frill on the wrists. The bases of Ambipom's tails also have a similar frill. It has round ears with red insides. Ambipom has an arrangement of a split hair sticking out from the top of its head. These strands of hair are longer on a female. It has a purple, triangular nose and wide eyes.
Ambipom can leap from tree to tree with brilliant speed. To eat, it deftly shucks nuts with its two tails. As it has two hands on its tails, it rarely uses its arms. Ambipom works in large colonies in heavily wooded areas and makes rings by linking tails with another Ambipom, apparently in friendship. It also shows affection by using both of its tails to wrap and squeeze people. It lives along with its young, Aipom. While searching for comfortable trees, Ambipom get into territorial disputes with Passimian, in which they win half the time.
Dawn's Aipom, formerly Ash's, evolved into an Ambipom in Journey to the Unown!. Upon evolving, she matured greatly and became one of Dawn's most talented Pokémon, being used in many of her Contests. She was later given to O in To Thine Own Pokémon Be True!, in order to train and then become a ping-pong champion at his training center in Vermilion City.
Gold's Aipom, Aibo, evolved into an Ambipom prior to his battle with the legendary Arceus. However, as the story moves back to a few weeks before the fight, it wasn't until Pleased as Punch With Parasect that he was finally shown. This event, however, distressed Togebo, being the only Pokémon on his team that was in his basic stage.
Ambipom appears to be based on a New World monkey and the exaggerated concept of their prehensile tail. Ambipom also shares its large smile with a cymbal-banging monkey toy. It may vaguely reference the ahuizotl, a creature of Aztec mythology with monkey hands and a fifth human hand on its tail.
Name origin
Ambipom is a combination of the prefix ambi- (from the Latin for both), referring to ambidexterity, and a corruption of palm.
Eteboth may be a combination of 猿公 etekō (monkey), 得手 ete, meaning strong point, and both, possibly referring to the ambidextrous nature of the hands on its tail.
In other languages
Language
Title
Meaning
Japanese
エテボース Eteboth
From 猿公 etekō (monkey), 得手 ete (strong point), and both