大象的记忆力惊人并不仅仅是传说，近期就有科学家通过实验证明大象的记忆力非常好，尤其是一些涉及到危险情况的记忆，可能更会使它们“终身难忘”。
据国外媒体报道，一般来讲，成年的大象没有被捕食的危险 只有那些脱离队伍的小象和体弱的老象才有被捕食的危险。研究非洲大象的科学家们发现，年老的大象在面对一些危险情况时往往会知道怎样去处理，因为它们之前曾经遇到过类似的情况，记得该如何应对。
研究人员通过扬声器播放狮子的吼声来模拟它们的存在，同时观察那些年长的大象会对这些可能对它们有威胁的状况作出一些什么反应。苏塞克斯大学的凯伦-麦库姆(Karen McComb)博士表示，一些微妙的现象体现出在社会性哺乳动物群体中，较长寿命所获得的经验对其群体发展的重要性。
研究人员实验对象是一些在一起生活，寻找食物和照顾后代的象群。当播放雄狮的吼声时，最年长的大象会更专注的聆听，并且带领群体形成更好的防御态势以防止袭击的发生。研究人员称：“我们饿工作提供了一个明显的证据，直接证明年老的象群领导者在面对生存挑战时，能够做出更好的决策带领群体避免危险。”
之前有研究称，那些拥有相对于体型来讲更大一些大脑的猎物，更有可能躲避开捕猎者，因为它们能够根据具体的情况，更有效地调整自己的行为和反应。而此项研究显示出大象长期积累的记忆知识能帮助其在关键时刻做出更好的抉择。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Proc. R. Soc. B doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.0168
Leadership in elephants: the adaptive value of age
Karen McComb1,*, Graeme Shannon1,4,*?, Sarah M. Durant2, Katito Sayialel3, Rob Slotow4, Joyce Poole3,5 and Cynthia Moss3
The value of age is well recognized in human societies, where older individuals often emerge as leaders in tasks requiring specialized knowledge, but what part do such individuals play in other social species? Despite growing interest in how effective leadership might be achieved in animal social systems, the specific role that older leaders may play in decision-making has rarely been experimentally investigated. Here, we use a novel playback paradigm to demonstrate that in African elephants (Loxodonta africana), age affects the ability of matriarchs to make ecologically relevant decisions in a domain critical to survival—the assessment of predatory threat. While groups consistently adjust their defensive behaviour to the greater threat of three roaring lions versus one, families with younger matriarchs typically under-react to roars from male lions despite the severe danger they represent. Sensitivity to this key threat increases with matriarch age and is greatest for the oldest matriarchs, who are likely to have accumulated the most experience. Our study provides the first empirical evidence that individuals within a social group may derive significant benefits from the influence of an older leader because of their enhanced ability to make crucial decisions about predatory threat, generating important insights into selection for longevity in cognitively advanced social mammals.
