Why Elephants Never Forget?

Natchya Tewari

It's a common saying that elephants never forget, but these magnificent animals are more than giant walking hard drives. Their impressive memory is only one aspect of an incredible intelligence that makes them some of the most social, creative, and benevolent creatures on Earth. They also remember and distinguish particular cues that signal danger and can recall important locations long after their last visit. All of this shows that elephant memory goes beyond responses to stimuli.

 Looking inside their heads, we can see why the elephant boasts the largest brain of any land mammal, as well as an impressive encephalization quotient. This is the size of the brain relative to what we'd expect for an animal's body size, and the elephant's EQ is nearly as high as a chimpanzee's. And despite the distant relation, convergent evolution has made it remarkably similar to the human brain, with as many neurons and synapses and a highly developed hippocampus and cerebral cortex.

It is the hippocampus, strongly associated with emotion that aids recollection by encoding important experiences into long-term memories. Unfortunately, it's also what makes elephants one of the few non-human animals to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. But perhaps the most amazing thing about elephants is a capacity even more important than cleverness: their sense of empathy, altruism, and justice.

Elephants are the only non-human animals to mourn their dead, performing burial rituals and returning to visit graves. They have shown concern for other species, as well.