Elephant’s Memory

Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family

Elephants have excellent long-term memory and are capable of remembering experiences for long periods of time. Research has shown that elephants are able to recognize other herd members decades after they have last interacted with them.

Extensive observations have confirmed that elephants indeed remember injuries and hold grudges against their abusers.Elephants remember trainers or keepers who mistreated them even after years of separation.If an elephant had a bad experience with a human it will remember and become angry if it sees the human again later in life.

An elephant’s memory is the key to its survival and this is why it has to be so powerful. Elephants use their memory to keep out strangers from their clan. If an unknown approaches an elephant clan, they will all stand together until the matriarch decides if the unknown person, animal or thing is a threat to the clan.

Elephants also recognize members of their group by remembering urine smells. Elephants can remember urine smells of up to 30 of their relatives. This “talent” allows elephants to keep track of other members of their herd.

Elephants are amongst the few wild animals to form strong social bonds of companionship, friendship and family. They are capable of recognising not only their own mothers, calves and siblings but also their grandmothers, aunts, cousins and nieces – and sometimes even fathers. They know elephants they’ve mated and interacted with in the past, and have been observed to form particular friendships with unrelated elephants.

Some people believe that elephants’ memories are what have allowed them to be some of the longest living animals. Elephants are known for their longevity. They can live as long as humans. The oldest recorded elephant lived to be 86 years old.

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