Do elephants really never forget?
The saying is an exaggeration, but elephants do have excellent long-term memories. They remember family members, water sources and migration routes for many years.
Elephants have large brains and a well-developed hippocampus, the part linked with memory. Older female elephants, called matriarchs, lead their herds and remember where to find water and food during droughts, sometimes across great distances.
Studies have found that elephants recognize the calls of dozens of other elephants and can remember individuals they have not seen for years. They also seem to recognize humans who have treated them badly or well.
Smart and social
Elephants show behaviors linked with intelligence, such as using tools, cooperating and recognizing themselves in a mirror. They also appear to mourn their dead, touching the bones of other elephants with their trunks.
Good memory helps elephants survive in a changing landscape. During a severe drought in Tanzania in 1993, researchers found that herds led by older matriarchs, who had lived through an earlier drought decades before, moved to distant water sources and lost far fewer calves than herds led by younger females. Experience stored in memory can mean the difference between life and death.
Did You Know?
A 2024 study suggested that wild African elephants use name-like calls to address specific individuals, something very rare in animals.