Burrowl’s heavy wings prevent it from flying, but it uses them as shovels to dig underground. It also uses its wings to protect small Pokémon from sandstorms.
Burrowl's original design resembled an Owlbear, a monster from the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons.
Burrowl and Magowl were originally intended to be part of the same evolution family, with a shared pre-evolution. The pre-evolution was never successfully created.
Design origin[]
Early concepts and designs for Burrowl.
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Burrowl is based on a great horned owl in appearance and a burrowing owl in that it lives underground in dry, arid places. Both Burrowl and Magowl were designed to have flightless wings, so Burrowl became a burly bird with large shovel-like limbs.
Both Burrowl and Magowl were originally great horned owls that had adapted to different biomes in an extreme sense.
Name origin[]
Burrowl's name is a combination of burrow and owl.