It seems almost inevitable that Pokémon GO will be celebrating the Chinese year of the rat very soon, and that could include the introduction of Shiny Bidoof.
Pokémon GO events come thick and fast and, whenever it can, Niantic likes those events to tie-in to real-life; whether it be a significant day on the calendar or something going on in the real world. January 25, 2020, is Chinese New Year, an event that will commence the Chinese year of the rat, and it seems highly likely that Pokémon GO will be celebrating it the only way it knows how -- by upping the spawn rate of rat Pokémon.
It seems highly likely that Pokémon such as Pikachu, Bidoof, Patrat, and a few others will appear far more frequently during Chinese New Year. Although Niantic hasn't announced anything officially yet, Chinese New Year starts on January 25, 2020, and runs through until February 4, 2020.
In typical Pokémon GO fashion, Niantic has teased something that will go down should predictions about the event come to fruition -- the arrival of Mimccino in the game. The arrival of Mimccino was teased via nothing more than a moon emoji, but we're struggling to think what else it could be hinting at. It also goes hand-in-hand with the continued gradual roll-out of Gen V Pokémon.
Mimccino research tasks have also been unearthed by dataminers, and the tasks point to the arrival of another Pokémon during Chinese New Year, or more accurately, an alternate version of one that has been around for a while -- Shiny Bidoof. Since Bidoof is the only Pokémon mentioned in the research that doesn't yet have a Shiny version in Pokémon GO, players have deduced that it will be coming very soon.
There is precedent to suggest that this will be the case. Something very similar happened during Lotoad's Research Day, during which Shiny Castform was added to the game for the first time. Coming off the back of a jam-packed 2019, it seems as if Niantic shows no signs of slowing down in 2020.
As mentioned above, nothing relating to Chinese New Year or the year of the rat has been confirmed in relation to Pokémon GO just yet, but keep an eye out in the game and on TheGamer as we inch closer to January 25.