#pokemon behavior

sounds like you've got a picky eater on your hands! aside from giving them a little extra heft for bashing into foes with, the rock acts as a major source of nutrition for varoom. since captive varoom have other minerals provided to them to supplement their diet, their choice in rock tends to come down to taste.

pretty much. this is how they can be trained for disaster relief work, where they need to pick up on more specific cues.

wild absol will stay with their mother for anywhere from four to six years, during which time they pick up on her cues for disaster signaling. they take some time to figure out what really qualifies as a disaster. that being said, they aren't usually so sensitive as to alert on random pokemon. the absol in the photo i posted is a bit of a special case- his mother is an absol that has been alerting for decades in orre, and she's also been trained by a ranger to alert to things like unusual pokemon presences while orre's recovering ecosystem is still sensitive. he'll figure it out eventually.

In the wild, packs of Sneasel will trail prey for miles in driving blizzards and snow squalls. Their favored prey (Delibird, Stantler and Swinub) are always on the move. This behavior is extremely helpful in search parties during inclement weather or after an avalanche.

that's a really great question and a really important thing for anyone who owns a pokemon to know!

remember, play and battle aren't always separate for pokemon. many pokemon will battle as a primary form of play with other pokemon of the same evolutionary line! the thing to look for is body language and evidence of type energy.

a pokemon that wants to play without battle will often keep its body language "soft" (inviting the other pokemon into its space, not attempting to initiate anything like chasing or wrestling until the other pokemon chooses to interact). many pokemon will start play off this way and work their way up to battle-as-play. a pokemon that wants to battle playfully will often show a mixture of more alert, forward behaviors (chasing, "larger" body language, playfully aggressive things like leg stomping) and those soft behaviors from earlier. it can look a lot like hit-and-run sort of behavior, but it's really "attacking" followed by retreating to see if the other pokemon wants to play along. you may see some early indications of type energy (e.g. frothing bubbles in water types, sparks in electric types) that will progress into actual moves when the pokemon get into the battle.

a pokemon that is initiating battle because it's scared/aggressive/wants to be left alone will generally show much harsher behavior early on. it may fire off moves from a distance as warning, or it may even go straight to trying to hit the other pokemon. if your pokemon is doing this or is trying to play with a pokemon that's doing this, it's time to recall them to their ball.

...put up a fence? this is famously one of oddish's most common natural behaviors. it's called oddium wanderus precisely because it spends the night wandering around.

i take it you enjoy your showers on the hotter side? he's probably enjoying the warmth!

water itself is not the same as water type move energy, and plenty of fire types will happily play in some water. of course, there are some who are always going to avoid water like the plague; pokemon with open flames tend not to like it, and individual pokemon have preferences. but it's not super unusual to see fire types playing in water. it's a common panic call to the vet for first-time fire type owners!

yeah, that's definitely the gastly. charmander don't actually produce enough smoke from their tail to trigger a smoke alarm unless you hold them right up to it. gastly, on the other hand, are dense gaseous bodies, and if they float up to a smoke detector they'll definitely trigger the sensor.

super normal! you have to remember that evolution is kind of exhausting for pokemon. it's not uncommon for them to be averse to touch or socialization right before/after evolving. espeon also have very sensitive fur, and they have to adjust to how everything feels. it's kind of like trying on new shoes, but uh, for their whole body i guess? and until they "break in" their new sensory abilities it's very easy for them to get overwhelmed.