As far as I’m aware, the inclusion of real-world animal species in the older anime and games was due to the lack of variety in existing Pokemon species. The last time I know they referred to a real animal was in 2016, where the Pokedex entry for Raichu says it can knock out an Indian elephant. More recently, Raichu’s Pokedex entry was updated to instead say it can incapacitate a Copperajah.
As far as I’m aware, the inclusion of real-world animal species in the older anime and games was due to the lack of variety in existing Pokemon species. The last time I know they referred to a real animal was in 2016, where the Pokedex entry for Raichu says it can knock out an Indian elephant. More recently, Raichu’s Pokedex entry was updated to instead say it can incapacitate a Copperajah.