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Cramorant is a blue avian Pokémon resembling a cormorant. It has bright green, large, circular eyes with small black pupils, and a large, thin yellow beak. It has a ruff of light gray feathers that goes around its torso and sticks out at the back, making it resemble a bib. Its tail feathers have a small dot-shaped marking of this same shade of gray. It has a ruff of feathers on its head, with the largest clump pointing backward and being surrounded by small singular feathers. Its feet are black, webbed, and have three toes. Its wings seem to be perpetually spread outwards on its sides.
Cramorant is a gluttonous Pokémon with an instinctive desire to swallow anything whole. It generally hunts for prey along riverbanks. Its preferred prey is Arrokuda, but sometimes it tries to swallow other Pokémon such as Pikachu, attempting to spit them out if it realizes its mistake.[1]
Cramorant is quite strong, to the point where it can knock out some opponents in one hit. However, it is also rather unintelligent, forgetful, and bad at learning, as the energy used by its brain is minimal. It tends to focus more on battling, but sometimes it can't remember what it is battling mid-fight. Despite this forgetfulness, Cramorant never forgets Trainers that it trusts. However, it will try to attack its Trainer if they try to steal its food.[1]
Cramorant has two alternate forms: Gulping Form and Gorging Form.
It changes into its Gulping Form when it catches an Arrokuda and changes back when it spits it out. If it accidentally catches a Pikachu, it changes into its Gorging Form, once again reverting back when it spits it out. Cramorant cannot catch another Pokémon while in its Gulping Form or Gorging Form and therefore cannot change directly from one form to the other without first spitting out its catch.
Aside from its standard form, Cramorant has two additional forms: Gulping Form and Gorging Form. It will always be in its standard form outside of battle, while its other two forms are activated in battle by its Ability, Gulp Missile.
Cramorant starts battle in its standard form. If it uses Surf or Dive in this form while it has over 50% of its maximum HP remaining, it will change into Gulping Form, which has an Arrokuda caught in its beak. If Gulping Form Cramorant is hit by a damaging move, then Cramorant will spit the Arrokuda out at the attacker, which deals damage equal to 25% of their maximum HP, lowers their Defense by one stage, and reverts Cramorant back to its standard form.
If Cramorant uses Surf or Dive in its standard form while it is at or below 50% of its maximum HP, it will change into Gorging Form, which has a male Pikachu caught in its beak. If Gorging Form Cramorant is hit by a damaging move, then Cramorant will spit the Pikachu out at the attacker, which deals damage equal to 25% of their maximum HP, paralyzes them, and reverts Cramorant back to its standard form.
These Arrokuda and Pikachu are never Shiny. This is specifically a male Pikachu, as seen by the shape of its tail.
Cramorant's Japanese name, ウッウ Uu, is a palindrome.
Cramorant is tied with Cleffa for the shortest Japanese Pokémon name in trademarked romaji, with only two letters each. However, Cleffa's name is shorter in kana (ピィ).
Origin
Cramorant may be based on two common seabirds present in the British Isles, the cormorant and the fulmar, a bird that uses defensive vomiting to turn away predators; inspiration from the latter may also justify its primary Flying type, as like most petrels, fulmars spend most of their lives on the wing. Its Gulp MissileAbility may also draw inspiration from cormorant fishing, an ancient fishing technique that consists of using trained cormorants to fish and spit the fish up. Cormorants also frequently hold their wings outstretched, as Cramorant does, to dry their feathers after a dive. The plumage on its neck may be inspired by bibs.
Cramorant's Shiny coloration may be inspired by multiple news stories from the UK involving seagulls having turned orange due to accidentally falling into curry sauce.[2][3][4]
Name origin
Cramorant may be a combination of cram and cormorant.
Uu may be a combination of ウッ u~ (sound of choking or gasping) and 鵜 u (cormorant).
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.