Swinub is a small porcinePokémon. Living in frigid temperatures, Swinub is covered in dense, brown, striped hair to keep it warm. The hair is so shaggy that it often covers its tuft-like small legs, making it appear like a legless lump. Swinub's eyes appear as if they are perpetually closed.
Swinub uses its pink, pig-like nose to dig through mud and snow, looking for anything edible. In Hisui, ancient people relied on Swinub a lot because of this skill. Occasionally, it will come across hot springs while scouring the ground. Its favorite food is a type of mushroom that grows beneath dead grass, though it also eats Berries. When a Swinub finds an attractive smell, it will run desperately to find out the source of the aroma. It inhabits cold places, such as icy caves, mountainous regions, and frozen tundra.
It rubs its snout on the ground to find and dig up food. It sometimes discovers hot springs. (Pokémon Red, Silver, or Crystal inserted) If it smells something enticing, it dashes headlong off to find the source of the aroma. (Pokémon Blue, Gold, or Yellow inserted)
Swinub roots for food by rubbing its snout against the ground. Its favorite food is a mushroom that grows under the cover of dead grass. This Pokémon occasionally roots out hot springs.
It roots for food by rubbing its snout against the ground. Its favorite food is a mushroom that grows under dried grass. It occasionally roots out hot springs.
Swinub roots for food by rubbing its snout against the ground. Its favorite food is a mushroom that grows under the cover of dead grass. This Pokémon occasionally roots out hot springs.
Swinub have an excellent sense of smell, which helps them find things buried in the snow. Whenever they go somewhere dangerous, Mamoswine are sure to go with them.
Three Swinub debuted in Spring Fever. Nicknamed "Sue", "Ein", and "Ub", they were used by Peggy and her father to sniff out places to dig for hot springs.
Swinub, the Pig Pokémon. Swinub love mushrooms that grow under the dead grass, searching for them by smell and often discovering hot springs in the process.
Pryce owns a Swinub, which is often kept on his lap when he rides his wheelchair (and during battle). When Pryce becomes lost in time, the Swinub is trapped with him. The same Swinub returned along with Pryce at Sinjoh Ruins, and it fought alongside him against Dialga. It first appeared in Savvy Swinub.
No other Pokémon has the same typecombination as Swinub and its evolved forms.
Swinub's type combination is also the only possible combination weak to all three first partner Pokémon types (Grass, Fire and Water), as Rock (the only other type besides Ground, Fire and Water that is weak to either Grass or Water) resists Fire while Bug and Steel (the only types besides Grass or Ice weak to Fire) both resist Grass.
Swinub and its evolved forms are the only brown Ice-type Pokémon.
Origin
Swinub's size and appearance seem to be a mix of a wild boar piglet and a long-haired guinea pig. It may also be based on wordplay of the groundhog. Both are similar in characteristics and behavior, while "Ground hog" describes Swinub's type and species quite well. Swinub also resembles the Marsupial mole. Swinub's ability to find hot springs may reference the history of use of animals and their keen smell for this purpose, specifically it may reference to the legend of king Bladud of Bath in England, whose herd of pigs found hot springs that cured his leprosy.
Name origin
Swinub may be a combination of swine and nub (referring to its lump-like nose) or cub, a young animal.
Urimoo may be a combination of 瓜坊 uribō (wild boar piglet) and ブーブー būbū (onomatopoeia for oinking).
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.