I understand that many species change or go extinct over time, but what does it mean for a pokemon to "loose" its evolution? I learned about Wyrdeer not too long ago and how it had only been recorder in colder ancient Sinnoh climates. Are the ones in Johto not evolving because of the warmer temperatures? Is it global warming? :(
usually, when this happens in the wild without human intervention, it just means that the pressures to evolve were overwhelmed by pressures against evolution. but wyrdeer is kind of an interesting case! while they do have that luxurious fur, global warming is no the reason they stopped evolving.
wyrdeer were extremely rare in the wild even during hisuian times, because their evolutionary requirements are so specific. what caused their evolution was not living in a cold climate but rather exposure to a very specific type of psychic type energy caused by using the move psyshield bash in a specific way. the fur growth resulting in that warm beard is a side effect of the energy, which is something we see in other pokemon that store energy in their fur or feathers. only the strongest, most agile stantler were capable of triggering evolution in the wild, which is why wyrdeer generally were seen leading their herds.
as for why the evolution died out...part of it is because it just wasn't a common evolution. wild stantler can survive just fine without a wyrdeer leading them. the other part is that, as populations of stantler were brought to sinnoh from johto and began breeding with sinnohan populations, there was a shift in moves learned by the resulting offspring. move atrophy happens more commonly than you might think! over time, psyshield bash dropped from the native moveset. the resulting population therefore lost the means they needed to evolve, but because stantler survive super well on their own, it didn't really affect them.
wyrdeer aren't completely extinct nowadays- they're extinct in the wild, and they're extremely rare in captivity, but there are people who maintain heritage breed stantler that still learn psyshield bash. wyrdeer are not easy pokemon to keep, though, so most of these stantler go unevolved.




















