They say an elephant never forgets, but is this really true? It’s a question that scientists have been trying to answer for ages, and as it turns out, there’s no easy answer.
Scientists take a lot of factors into consideration when attempting to answer this question, but one of the most important is the creature’s brain, which is undoubtedly much larger than a human’s and sports a higher number of neurons as a result.
But size isn’t everything, so scientists spend a lot of their time studying elephant behavior to see how it aligns with the creature’s so-called high memory capacity.
Notably, the matriarch of an elephant group can survive for up to 60 years, and younger elephants are known to learn from the matriarch’s past experiences. The inference here is that the matriarch remembers experiences for a long time – perhaps even long enough to pass it on to new generations.
But as much as these factors support the notion that elephants have a good memory, more research is needed and scientists are always continuing their studies in an attempt to learn more.
