Tauros: Difference between revisions

Tauros (ケンタロス Kentauros in Japanese, also Tauros in German and French) is a fictional creature in the Pokémon video game series.

Tauros's name is an abbreviation of its Japanese name, Kentauros, which is comes from Greek Κένταυρος, Centaur. It could also be a misspelling of Centaurus. Moreover, taurus is Latin for bull. Also, it's name may come from the word "Toro!" that bull fighters yell (toro meaning bull in spanish).

Tauros takes on the appearance of a brown-furred bull with a thick brown mane, three tails, and a set of three pearl-like growths adorning its forehead. It is cattle much like Miltank, and though the two look extremely different, there may be an undiscovered evolutionary connection between.

Tauros is a diurnal, carnivorous Pokémon that has long been famous for its violent urges and rowdy, aggressive disposition in general, as supplied by a tremendous amount of natural stamina. Any given Tauros finds it impossible to keep up its spirits in life without near-constant rampaging. It always tries to find opponent Pokémon to battle outright to serve this purpose, but if it is alone, it will instead concentrate on charging at and knocking down thick trees to calm itself.

Herds of this Pokémon under observation demonstrate that they have a heirarchy system where the strongest member leads. Tauros in these herds fight each other for the sake of proving this important element of strength by locking horns and struggling until one succumbs from stamina loss. The member that has proven itself strong enough to gain the role of protector takes pride in its battle-scarred horns, which measure its social standing.

Tauros has a special habit that specifically affects its ability to battle, both in the wild and in trainer-directed Pokémon battles: It whips itself with its three long snapping tails. When it targets an enemy, it heightens its will to battle by whipping its own backside with its tails before charging at full speed. Here it often demonstrates an interesting disability: While charging, it can only charge in a straight line, unable to change its direction even slightly if the opponent Pokémon is wily enough to simply step out of the way (compare with Linoone).

In the first generation of Pokémon games (Red, Blue, and Yellow), Tauros could only be found by paying entrance into the Safari Zone. In Gold, Silver and Crystal, it can be found on routes 38 and 39, in the morning and daytime in Crystal and all day otherwise. In all instances, it is rather rare to encounter a Tauros. Also in Pokemon XD one could be snagged from Cipher Grand Master Greevil.

Tauros is a strong frontal physical battler with very high speed, high attack, and high defense, offset by low special defense and very low special attack. Though it can learn plenty of strong physical moves like Take Down and Thrash and be taught TM moves like Earthquake and Iron Tail, it also has a rather large amount of teachable elemental moves, including Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Solarbeam, and Surf, which it probably will not use well due to its low special attack.

There is slight speculation among the fan community that the fourth generation will introduce a new baby Pokémon that is the pre-evolved form of Tauros and Miltank. The basis for this speculation is that in previous games with special Pokedex orderings (Gold/Silver/Crystal’s New Pokedex and the Grassland Pokémon section of Firered/Leafgreen’s Pokedex), Tauros and Miltank are always seen together. Other bases are that both Pokémon are cattle species, their genders are always set opposite to each other, Tauros currently has no egg moves, and that it has happened before where two independent species have been linked together with a new pre-evolutionary form (Tyrogue to Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan in this case).

Currently, Tauros is able to be bred with Miltank due to their identical breeding types, though the baby Pokemon will always be a Miltank.

In one episode of the anime (banned for broadcast in the US for its use of gunplay), Ash and his friends found themselves in the Safari Zone. As a joke regarding its rarity in the games, Ash ended up catching practically a whole herd of Tauros, at the expense of the Pokémon he was actually battling against. They usually reside in Professor Oak's lab in a herd.

In another episode, the group was travelling to Goldenrod City when they came by a town that was celebrating some sort of festival, with chances to battle and trade -- and an event paralleling the San Fermin festival and the running of the bulls at Pamplona, Spain.

In the first Pokémon movie, there is a short scene (during Mewtwo's training sessions for Giovanni) where Mewtwo is confronted by a whole herd of Tauros. To no one's surprise, Mewtwo easily defeats them with its Psychic powers, summoning a cyclone to literally sweep them off their feet.

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