Mareep is a Pokémon with fluffy cream wool covering its entire body, as well as a curly tuft of wool in the middle of its head. Its head is blue, and it has black eyes with white pupils. Its four feet are blue and have two digits on each foot, and it appears to be on tiptoe at all times. Its horns, presumed to be its ears, and tail have a yellow and black striped pattern. Mareep has an orange sphere at the end of its tail, which acts like a small light bulb.
Gender differences
None.
Special abilities
Mareep's wool stores electricity, rubbing together and building a static charge, and increases in volume when it builds up with electricity. Touching the wool when the wool is charged will result in a nasty static shock. The bulb at the end of Mareep's tail glows brighter the more electricity it has.
Behavior
Mareep tend to avoid battle in the wild and have mild dispositions. Mareep's fleece grows continually. In the summer, the fleece is fully shed, but it grows back in a week. Mareep also stores air in its soft fur, allowing it to stay cool in summer and warm in winter.
Mareep made its anime debut in Mild 'n Wooly, in which a flock is shepherded by a young girl named Mary and her mother. Mary had her own Mareep called "Fluffy."
Mareep's fluffy coat of wool rubs together and builds a static charge. The more static electricity is charged, the more brightly the lightbulb at the tip of its tail grows.
Its Shiny sprites maintain the same coloration throughout Generation IV.
Origin
Mareep appears to be simply based on a sheep. It is likely that its electric aspect and Ability comes from how wool builds up static charges and may also be based on the golden fleece in Greek and Roman mythology. It, and its evolutions, may also have been based on the title of the science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Name origin
Mareep may be a combination of Mary (from the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb") and sheep. Mareep is also an anagram of ampere, a unit of electric current.
Merriep may be a combination of merry, メー mē (the sound made by sheep), or Mary and sheep.
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.