Mankey is a primate Pokémon, similar to a New World monkey. It is a bipedal Pokémon with a round body covered in whitish, shaggy fur. Its nose is similar to a pig’s snout, and it has red eyes and triangular ears with brown insides. Mankey's hands, two-toed feet, and the tip of its curved, prehensile tail is brown.
Mankey specializes in physical fighting, and is very aggressive and short-tempered. When angry, Mankey begins shaking and its breathing turns rough. Its rage peaks quickly, preventing its victim from being able to flee. If Mankey loses sight of its colony, its loneliness causes it to become infuriated. Mankey can be found in the mountains. Mankey lives in treetop colonies, and if one becomes enraged, the whole colony rampages for no reason.
According to the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue Team games, Mankey's preferred food is chestnuts, although Mankey usually lacks the dexterity to peel them. Mankey will get agitated and rage after attempting to peel a chestnut's spiky shell. It also appears fond of bananas.
In A Tyrogue Full of Trouble, a Primeape was causing problems for a small town along with a Mankey and a Tyrogue. A Trainer named Kiyo was able to capture the Tyrogue, and the Mankey and Primeape joined up with him.
In Training Daze, a Mankey jointly under the ownership of Jessie and Jubei was used at the Team Rocket Academy for a test. It lowered Jessie into a vault containing an Articuno statue, but due to the rope getting stuck, Mankey and Jubei had to pull Jessie and the statue up; proving to be too heavy, they dropped it, triggering the alarms and resulting in Mankey and Jubei being injured.
Mankey first appeared as a silhouette when Green explains about Mew in The Jynx Jinx.
A pack of Mankey, led by an enraged Primeape, attacked Blue and Yellow in The Primeape Directive, but his Porygon managed to defeat it. Yellow was the one to quell the leader and have them leave peacefully, however. They later appeared in The Legend after the industrial ruins in the Kanto mainland had been restored by the healing light.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Three Mankey are the boss of Uproar Forest. After being defeated, they follow the player back to the rescue base. The Mankey help with the remodeling of the base but go on strike half-way through until they receive two peeled chestnuts.
When Mankey starts shaking and its nasal breathing turns rough, it's a sure sign that it is becoming angry. However, because it goes into a towering rage almost instantly, it is impossible for anyone to flee its wrath.
When it starts shaking and its nasal breathing turns rough, it's a sure sign of anger. However, since this happens instantly, there is no time to flee.
Mankey can be seen as a parallel to Meowth. Both of them are Generation I Pokémon who evolve into their evolved forms at or above level 28. Mankey is exclusive to Pokémon Red, Gold, and HeartGold, while Meowth is exclusive to Blue, Silver, and SoulSilver. Additionally, both seem to have a similar color scheme.
Origin
Considering its pig-like nose, long tail, and overall personality, Mankey has much in common with baboons.
Name origin
Mankey may be a combination of mad or man and monkey. It could also be a pun on cranky, referring to Mankey's irritable personality.
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.