Elephants are known for a lot of things. One, the fact that they’re the world’s largest land animal. Two, that their tusks make them vulnerable to poaching. Three, that they “never forget.” But do elephants really never forget? Let’s look into this question more closely.

Elephant Brains

Elephant brains are definitely well-suited for strong memories. They're roughly three times larger than those of humans, weighing in at about 11 pounds. This gives them the largest brain among all land-based animals. Their cerebral cortex, linked with memory, has the largest volume, too. Their temporal lobe – also responsible for memory - has more folds than a human brain, which means it has more surface area to allow more pathways to carry messages. Its folded nature is similar to that of human, ape, and dolphin brains, which are known to be more cognitively complex.

Elephant brains also have roughly 257 billion neurons, about three times as many as human brains. 

Elephant Intelligence

These large brains also seem to lead to a fair amount of intelligence. Consider the following research findings.

A 2007 study published in the journal Current Biology showed that elephants are able to recognize humans who pose a threat to them, compared to those who probably don’t. The research focused on two ethnic Kenyan groups. One, the Maasai, tends to be a greater danger to elephants because their young men often spear them to show virility, and they may also become more aggressive with elephants to defend livestock. The other group, the Kamba, are agriculturalists who don’t usually harm elephants.

The study showed that elephants get more nervous when they come across the scent of a Maasai person versus a Kamba person, and seeing their traditional garment color also makes them more aggressive. Further research into this recognition showed that elephants were also more apt to become defensive after hearing the voices of Maasai men, versus Kamba men and Maasai women and boys. This suggests they can detect signs of ethnicity, sex, and age by listening to voices. 

Other research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that Asian elephants are able to recognize themselves in a mirror. This is not all that common in animals, mostly confined to apes, dolphins, and a few bird species. The researchers say the elephants’ progression to recognition is similar to that of other animals, including social responses to the reflection, an inspection of the mirror, repetitive mirror testing, and the realization that they’re looking at themselves. The study notes that the findings “suggest convergent cognitive evolution most likely related to complex sociality and cooperation.”

They’re also good at using their smarts for something really important: snack acquisition. A 2023 study involving 77 wild Asian elephants at the Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary in Thailand showed that the species can overcome challenges to access a tasty treat. Motion-activated cameras observed the elephants as they encountered puzzle boxes that had three different compartments with different ways of accessing jackfruit. Forty-four of the elephants observed by the cameras investigated the boxes. In all, 11 were able to solve one compartment type, eight solved two, and five solved three. This reflects the different problem-solving abilities of the species and shows you may want to be better at hiding your secret treat stash if an elephant is nearby. 

Elephant Social Lives

In addition to practical smarts, elephants have demonstrated complex social and emotional attributes. They’ve been shown to be defensive around unfamiliar elephants. At the same time, matriarchs, who lead herds, have been found to recognize more than 200 individuals, even responding to the call of a dead herd member two years after their death. When they see a familiar face, they often get excited, even if that face is also from their past.

It's not just faces and calls they recognize, either. They may also recognize names. Recent research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution showed that elephants have unique names for each other. This conclusion was reached through the study of the calls of more than 100 African elephants in Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park. Often, species may emulate the calls of their group members to get each other’s attention. In this study, the identifiers were not imitations of each other’s vocalizations but appeared to be unique identifiers. 

These social beings also show emotion for each other. That includes grief, with elephants seen “mourning” for dead calves or other herd members and burying their dead with grasses. They’ve also been observed showing compassion by slowing down for herd members with injuries and even, in one case, helping a baby rhino stuck in the mud. 

Elephant Memories

So, we’ve tackled their complex brains, practical intelligence, and social/emotional intelligence. What about research on their memories? That’s fairly solid, too.

It can be difficult to survive during drought or other periods of limited resources, and the experience and memory recall of matriarchs seem to get some herds through these tough times. A study conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London investigated how three elephant herds managed during a drought at Tarangire National Park in Tanzania. They found that two of the herds, whose older matriarchs had been young during a prior drought, left the national park and had much lower calf death rates. This is presumably because the matriarchs remembered where their herd had gone for resources in the most recent serious drought, for which the younger matriarch of the other herd had not been alive.

Other research backs up the role matriarch memory plays in herd survival, too. That includes a 2011 study that showed families with younger matriarchs didn’t respond as strongly as they should to the sound of recorded lion roars, while the older a matriarch was, the stronger the response to this threat. 

Finally, a third study of elephants in Etosha National Park in Namibia showed that, 90% of the time, elephants choose the closest water source when in need of one, sometimes going in a straight line to water up to 30 miles away.

The lead author of that study, Leo Polansky from Colorado State University’s Warner College of Natural Resources, said, “We have anecdotes of incredible, singular long-distance migrations of elephants to far-flung waterholes throughout Africa.”

So, Do Elephants Really Never Forget?

Based on what we know about their brains, their intelligence, their recollection of faces from the past, and their ability to find essential resources decades after they’d last seen them, it’s safe to assume elephants remember quite a bit.

Further research into these intelligent, thoughtful beings may be in jeopardy, though, as they remain endangered, and their survival isn’t guaranteed. If you’d like to join us as we work toward better elephant welfare, click below!