system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Pokemon] Where do starters come from?

As it seems starters cannot be found in the wild, where do professors acquire starters to give to new trainers?
gpt
Each starter Pokemon is an example of a species of extremely powerful wild pokemon.

The reason they cannot be encountered in the wild by prospective trainers is that they specifically stay out of the way of humans, in secure habitats such as Charific Valley. It takes years of study to gain the trust of these animals and gain access to their territories. And even then it can be dangerous as the group of species known to be "starters" are extremely powerful in most cases. And also a lot are known to mega evolve.

Starter Pokemon are the result of pokemon professors gaining the confidence of adult specimens and breeding them for further research. The offspring is then taken and presented to first year trainers as a way of monitoring domestication of these particular species. 

It may seem cruel but wild pokemon often rear clutches of eggs much larger than domesticated pairs and the adult couple rarely miss 1 egg going missing. Usually accounting it to predation.