Elephants are one of the star animals in nursery rhymes. Even though they don’t fly, these large, hard-skinned mammals are magical and surprising. Intelligent and sensitive, elephants are resentful beings who should not be disappointed. Endowed with an impressive memory, they are also able to predict the weather tomorrow.
To discover all the secrets of the elephants, Sidonie Bonnec receives Emmanuelle Pouybedat, director of research at the CNRS and the National Museum of Natural History. She specializes in the evolution of animal behavior and publishes the book Animal intelligence: bird brains and elephant memory at Odile Jacob.
An excellent topographical, olfactory, visual and vocal memory
With a weight that can go up to six tons, the elephant is the biggest animal. His brain also a considerable size. The elephant’s cerebral cortex is the largest of any land mammal.
His four kilos of gray mass contain no less than ten billion neurons, against only seven for the chimpanzee. Therefore, the elephant is very clever and is equipped with a very good memory.
In particular, it has an excellent topographic memory : The matriarchs are able to bring their group out of their park in the event of a severe drought to find new resources.
The elephant also has a good olfactory, visual and vocal memory. It can recognize a hundred different voices and determine, thanks to the voice, the sex, the age or the ethnic origin of a person.