Believe it or not, the belief that elephants never forget has more than a bit of truth to it. In reality, “an elephant never forgets” is a generalization that's not true all the time because all elephants forget things from time to time. However, scientists have proven that elephants do have incredible memories.
They grieve over the bodies of dead herd members, and can even recognize their own reflections in a mirror.
" Elephants “almost certainly know every [member] in their group.
They can recognize other friendly elephants even when they had only spent short periods of time together.
But an elephant's amazing memory comes only with age and experience—and older, larger elephants are often a target of hunters. “The tragedy," says Lewis, "is that when one of these [elephants] is lost to poaching, the information dies with her,” leaving the rest of the herd at a disadvantage—and having severe consequences for the species as a whole.
