Because in the jungle book they go on about how elephants never forget.. yet I saw a cartoon when I was young and it was about an elephant who had to tie a knot in it's trunk to remember it's own birthday. Two extremes here, help me out!
2007-03-12 09:40:49 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
i happen to be an elephant at the weekend you know! what was the question again?
2007-03-12 09:46:44 · answer #1 · answered by simply stuart 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Jungle Book is full of generalisations; there will always be examples that disprove any universally accepted norm. The idea that 'all' elephants have a fantastic memory is ludicrous and cannot exist in practical terms and the reality is that all organisms, however large or small, are prone to decay, disease and malfunction, especially in the area of neurology which is so immensely complex that we still don't fully comprehend it's workings. The myth of the elephant never forgetting is popularised by authors and proverb wrights the world over but is utterly impossible to prove as we cannot quantify the amount of input the elephant discerns to take in. The elephant that ties a knot in its trunk to remember is showing great intelligence in employing an aide memoir but of course still has to recall the reason why it tied the knot in the first place so, in theory, the elephant hasn't actually 'forgotten' the thing it was supposed to remember but has merely 'misplaced' it for want of a better word. Anyway, elephants smell.
2007-03-12 09:49:27 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. The saying is, "an elephant never forgets." They were just making it funny by playing on that with the knot in the trunk, because people who have to remember something will tie a knot in their hankie to help them remember when they use it.
Elephants have good memories. HTH GL
2007-03-12 09:49:52 · answer #3 · answered by R.E.M.E. 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Two elephants are having a drink at a watering hole when a tortoise walks up for a drink, one of the elephants turns round and kicks the tortoise across the pool the other elephant asks him why he did it and he replies "because when i was a little elephant that tortoise bit my trunk" "wow" says the other elephant "you have a good memory" - "turtle recall" replies the first elephant "turtle recall!"
see they do have good memory!
2007-03-12 09:50:00 · answer #4 · answered by dave a 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Both of those were cartoons, however it is normally said that they never forget. The one where the elephant kept forgetting was supposed to be a funny play on that.
2007-03-12 09:43:01 · answer #5 · answered by kermit 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, elephants are actually very smart....they remember things very well, like if you took care of an elephant from birth to adulthood it would trust the zookeeper, or who ever was taking care of the elephant, it was on tv, and the elephants would only trust the people he knew..........so that alone tells us that they arent forgetful at all.
2007-03-12 09:45:29 · answer #6 · answered by Rocker Chick 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I read about cases where an elephant was owned by someone who abused the animal, and was then sold to someone else who treated it properly. A number of years later, when the elephant saw the man who had abused it, it attacked him.
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2007-03-12 13:26:54 · answer #7 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No,not all elephants have a good memory it seems that only the matriarchs, the older, dominant, female elephants that lead the herd, have one. They build-up a social memory as they get older, allowing them to recognize 'friendly' faces.
2007-03-12 09:49:40 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Elephants can remember hundreds of miles of land paths over the first trip.
2007-03-12 09:43:31 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
no they have great memories in times of drought older elephants can remember places they drank at 20 years ago even over great distances
2007-03-12 09:48:25 · answer #10 · answered by Adski 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋