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Why Elephants Never Forget - Coggle Diagram
Why Elephants Never Forget
Good Memory
Survival related
Recall important locations
Remember & distinguish danger signals
Know every member in herd, able to recognize 30 companions by sight / smell (help when migrating / encountering potentially hostile elephants)
Unrelated to survival
Remember creatures who made a strong impression on them
Two circus elephants that had briefly performed together rejoiced when crossing paths 23 years later
Elephants have also recognized humans they've bonded with after decades apart
Elephants' Brain
Hippocampus
Strongly associated with emotion, important experiences → long-term memories
Survived drought in youth → recognize warning signs in adulthood
Elephant memory = beyond rote memorization
One of the few non-human animals to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Cerebral Cortex
Tackle problems cooperatively, outwitting researchers & manipulating partners
Grasped basic arithmetic, keeping track of the relative amounts of fruit in two baskets after multiple changes
Enables problem solving
Unexplained things about mental life
Communication
Body signals, vocalizations, infrasound rumbles heard from a distance
Have own language & grammar
Arts
Create art by carefully choosing & combining diff. colors & elements
Recognize twelve distinct tones of music & recreate melodies (elephant band)
Facts
EQ similar to chimpanzees
Impressive encephalization quotient (size of the brain relative to what we'd expect for its body size)
Largest brain of land mammal
Memory goes beyond responses to stimuli
Remarkably similar to the human brain (due to convergent evolution)
Apart From Cleverness
Sense of empathy, altruism, justice
For own kind
The only non-human animal that mourn their dead, perform burial rituals & returning to visit graves
For other species
Working elephant refuse to set log in hole where a dog was sleeping
Encountering injured humans stood guard & gently comforted them with trunk
Only attack after massive poaching / culling (revenge)
Fact
Elephants = one of the few
species who recognize self in mirror
Humanity's Treatment of Elephants
Africa: ivory poaching
Asia: habitat destruction
Mistreatment in captivity worldwide
Elephants Are...
Conscious
Intelligent
Benevolent
Emotional
Creative
Social