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This reptilian Pokémon is serpentine. It has a rattle at the tip of its tail, and is mostly purple while its underbelly, eyes, rattle, and the "bands" on it are yellow.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Ekans are able to detach their jaws to swallow large prey whole, although this makes their bodies heavy. It can also use its tongue to sense danger, and can move quietly through the grass. Ekans was also shown in the second movie to possess some swimming abilities.
Behavior
Like actual snakes, Ekans will lash out with a bite when frightened by anything it sees as a threat. If one happens to be bitten by a young Ekans, they are lucky. As an Ekans, it does not possess the ability to add venom to its bite until after it evolves into an Arbok, though this last bit of information clashes with Ekans's dungeon phrase.
Ekans live in grassy savannas and plains. It also inhabits cemeteries. It is normally found in Kanto and Johto, but has been encountered in Sinnoh on rare occasions.
Ekans' favorite food is eggs from Pidgey and Spearow nests.
In the anime
Ekans in the anime
Major appearances
Ekans was part of "Team Meanies" in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate! Special. Gengar commanded the Poisonous Snake Pokémon to eat all the berries Team Go-Getters collected. At one point, Ekans was incorrectly referred to as Arbok by Gengar. While this was an intentional error that Ekans rebuked in the original version (due to the similarities in the Japanese names), this came across as a general mistake in the dub and was corrected in reairings of the episode.
Jessie had an Ekans, which for most of the original series, was her only Pokémon. It was extremely loyal to her and eventually evolved into an Arbok just to make her happy.
A pair of Ekans, the Ekans Brothers, are part of the supporting cast in the manga Magical Pokémon Journey. Led by Arbok, they are originally antagonists, but later they befriend the main characters when Arbok gets a crush on Wigglytuff.
Ekans curls itself up in a spiral while it rests. Assuming this position allows it to quickly respond to a threat from any direction with a glare from its upraised head.
An Ekans curls itself up in a spiral while it rests. This position allows it to quickly respond to an enemy from any direction with a threat from its upraised head.
In the Pokémon Red and Blue beta, Ekans was originally known as "Arbo". This is, of course, its romanized Japanese name.
An Ekans was originally going to be featured in Pokémon Snap, shown in an early test shot of an environment that was never featured in the final product. This is also true of its evolution, Arbok.
The curving line in front of Ekans's eyes, when seen from above, looks like the pattern of the Spectacled Cobra.
Despite in-game text stating that young Ekans's bites are the least dangerous because they don't have any poison, in real-life, young snake's bites are the most dangerous, because not only can they secrete venom, but they inject all of their venom in a single bite, due to their inability to control their alveoli.
It was shown in "Pokemon The Power of One" that Ekans can swim.
Origin
It appears to be based upon a boa and rattlesnake. However, its lack of teeth or venom, ability to swallow large prey, reference to it eating Pokémon eggs and its reaction to threats may mean it might have been based on an egg eating snake.
Name origin
Ekans is Snake spelled backwards. Arbo is an anagram of boa (ボア boa).
This Pokémon article is part of Project Pokédex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon species, as well as Pokémon groups and forms.