Why Elephants Never Forget

Good Memory

Survival related

Recall important locations

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

Cerebral Cortex

Facts

EQ similar to chimpanzees

Strongly associated with emotion, important experiences → long-term memories

Tackle problems cooperatively, outwitting researchers & manipulating partners

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)

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)

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

Apart From Cleverness

Sense of empathy, altruism, justice

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)

Remember & distinguish danger signals

Know every member in herd, able to recognize 30 companions by sight / smell (help when migrating / encountering potentially hostile elephants)

For own kind

For other species

The only non-human animal that mourn their dead, perform burial rituals & returning to visit graves

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

Elephants Are...

Conscious

Intelligent

Benevolent

Emotional

Creative

Social

Africa: ivory poaching

Asia: habitat destruction

Mistreatment in captivity worldwide