Ambipom is a purple, simian Pokémon with two tails, each with a large, rounded hand with three red-tipped fingers. The tails also have a cuff of a rounded frill on the wrists. The bases of Ambipom's tails also have a similar frill. It has round ears with red insides. Ambipom has an arrangement of a split hair sticking out from the top of its head. These strands of hair are longer on a female. It has a purple, triangular nose and wide eyes.
Ambipom can leap from tree to tree with brilliant speed. To eat, it deftly shucks nuts with its two tails. As it has two hands on its tails, it rarely uses its arms. Ambipom works in large colonies in heavily wooded areas and makes rings by linking tails with another Ambipom, apparently in friendship. It lives along with its young, Aipom.
Dawn's Aipom, formerly Ash's, evolved into an Ambipom in Journey to the Unown!. Upon evolving, she matured greatly and became one of Dawn's most talented Pokémon, being used in many of her Contests. She was later given to O in To Thine Own Pokémon Be True! to train to become a ping pong champion at his training center in Vermilion City. To date, no other Ambipom has appeared in the anime.
Gold's Aipom, Aibo, evolved into an Ambipom prior to his battle with the legendary Arceus. However, as the story moves back to a few weeks before the fight, it wasn't until several rounds later that its evolution was finally shown on-screen. This event, however, distressed Togebo, being the only Pokémon on his team that was in its basic stage.
Ambipom appears to have been based on a monkey, with an exaggerated concept of a prehensile tail. It may be specifically based on the squirrel monkey, which is similar in appearance, and also shares its large smile with cymbal monkeys. It is also similar to an ahuizotl, a creature of Aztec mythology with monkey hands and a fifth human hand on its tail.
Name origin
Ambipom is a combination of the prefix ambi- (from the Latin for both) and a corruption of palm.
Eteboth may be a combination of 得手 ete, meaning strong point, and both, possibly referring to the ambidextrous nature of the hands on its tail.
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.