Who is the unusual professor that Ditto meets in Pokémon Pokopia?

Professor Tangrowth is the unusual professor that Ditto meets in Pokémon Pokopia.

Tangrowth is depicted as a peculiar Pokémon living alone in a settlement where humans and Pokémon once coexisted. The character’s professor role is unusual because the Pokémon appears to wear human tools and understands the abandoned area’s history.

After Ditto awakens and takes human form, meeting Professor Tangrowth provides the story’s first major context. Together, they face a landscape in which grass and trees have withered and former residents have disappeared.

The character is not Professor Oak or another recurring human researcher from the main series. Professor Tangrowth is specific to Pokopia’s setting and helps establish the game’s mystery: what happened to the people who once occupied this world, and why must Pokémon rebuild it themselves?