The biggest mammals that live on land, elephants are gentle creatures known for their impressive memory and strong trunks. Surprisingly, there aren’t lots of elephant-inspired Pokemon; however, the elephant Pokemon that do exist are intriguing interpretations of this mammal.
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A lot of these elephant Pokemon don’t deviate too much from their real-world counterparts, but they still offer unique renditions through their creative designs. Whether they’re adorable elephant calves like Phanpy, prehistoric Pokemon from the Ice Age like Mamoswine, or capable of causing mass destruction like Gigantamax Copperajah, just like elephants never forget, you won’t forget about them any time soon.
7 Cute But Strong: Cufant
Introduced in Sword and Shield, the Copperderm Pokemon Cufant has an orange and dark green color scheme, as well as a pointed trunk. In fact, Cufant’s orange coloring is due to its copper body, with its dark green accents resulting from its “tarnish[ing] in the rain”, as its Shield Pokedex entry states.
Cufant exhibits a physical strength similar to real-world elephants, as it helps people with manual labor, lifting five tons without breaking a sweat. It uses its pointed trunk as a tool to dig the ground and harvest the rocks and ore on which it feeds.
6 Rolling And Rolling: Donphan
The Armor Pokemon Donphan forgoes the adorable look of its previous evolution, Phanpy, instead favoring an intimidating appearance that recognizes its physical strength. In fact, multiple of Donphan’s Pokedex entries say that it’s capable of tremendous power, such as “blow[ing] apart a house in one hit”. Not exactly a house guest you’d want to entertain.
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Donphan’s tough hide protects its body from incoming attacks, and thanks to this hide, it looks just like a tire when performing its trademark move, Rollout. Despite its strength, Donphan’s Pokedex entry in Violet says it is normally a calm Pokemon that only retaliates after it becomes enraged.
5 Appearances Can Be Deceiving: Phanpy
Perhaps the cutest elephant in Pokemon, Phanpy is essentially Dumbo, with its small size, big ears, and an elongated trunk. Its blue and red color scheme also gives it a vibrant appearance. While it’s not officially a baby Pokemon, it would fit right in with them, thanks to its sweet face and small stature.
Despite its unassuming appearance, though, Phanpy is remarkably strong, with its trunk being able to “shatter” bones if it accidentally hits you, according to Violet. Similar to real-world elephants, Phanpy can “carry an adult human on its back”, which begs the question of how it could be possible because of its tiny size. Although it can be dangerous, Phanpy is a friendly elephant that likes to have fun - you’ll just have to watch out when it swings its trunk.
4 Futuristic Take: Iron Treads
The Paradox Pokemon Iron Treads is available in Violet and is the futuristic descendant of the elephant-inspired Pokemon Donphan. As a futuristic parallel to Donphan, it shares a lot of similar characteristics while modernizing its appearance. The biggest change is Iron Treads’ robotic look, with a mechanized body as well as a spherical face that’s actually a screen.
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Much like Donphan, who’s known to curl up into a ball to attack enemies, Iron Treads’ spherical shape allows it to easily perform a similar offensive move. Weirdly enough, its Pokedex entry in Scarlet says that Iron Treads “resembles a scientific weapon that a paranormal magazine claimed was sent to this planet by aliens”, creating even more mystery surrounding this robotic Pokemon.
3 Green With Envy: Copperajah
Sharing a Pokemon category with its pre-evolution Cufant, Copperajah takes the copper appearance of Cufant and develops it, as the dark green accents present on Cufant have overtaken its body, giving it a tarnished appearance to complement its evolved form.
Its Pokedex entry in Violet says, the more green it has on its body, the more respect it commands from other Pokemon of its species. Although Cufant and Copperajah were introduced in Sworld and Shield, Copperajah’s Pokedex entry in Sword states that it originates from a different region altogether. Maybe one day we’ll see where Copperajah came from originally. When Gigantamaxed, Copperajah’s trunk becomes even more powerful, with its Pokedex entry even claiming that it could “level mountains and change the landscape”.
2 Cool As Ice: Mamoswine
The Twin Tusk Pokemon Mamoswine is based on a woolly mammoth, an extinct species that shares a common ancestor with elephants. It takes Piloswine’s few mammoth traits and fleshes out the concept completely. Luckily, Mamoswine managed to survive the Pokemon universe’s Ice Age.
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Pokemon researchers fascinated by the pre-historic Pokemon were able to excavate frozen Mamoswine and return it to life, as stated in many of its Pokedex entries. This helped to reintroduce the Pokemon to the modern world. The fact that Mamoswine is 10,000 years old adds to its intrigue - it could even be as old as the Paradox Pokemon.
1 Dangerous Being: Great Tusk
In Pokemon Scarlet, Great Tusk is a Paradox Pokemon and Donphan’s ancestor. Design-wise, Great Tusk definitely lives up to its name, as it has gigantic tusks, as well as pink spikes and fur around its legs that help to give it a prehistoric look. The Scarlet Book says that “this savage monster attacked the expedition team” and even fatally wounded one member.
Great Tusk’s violent temperament makes for a dangerous Pokemon, as shown in Scarlet when you fight a Titan version to salvage the Herba Mystica. Great Tusk’s Ground and Fighting typing is a first for the series, making it one powerful ancient Pokemon.
Next: The Best Cat Pokemon, Ranked
