Elephants are not just clumsy giants with big ears and good memories. The philosopher Aristotle once said that an elephant is "an animal that excels in wit and intelligence."

With a mass of more than 5 kg, the brain of an elephant is larger than that of any other land animal, but small compared to the total body weight: only 0.2% (in chimpanzees - 0.8%, in humans about 2%). Based on this, one would think that elephants are rather stupid animals. But evidence suggests that relative brain size cannot be an accurate indicator of intelligence.

Elephants are animals that are good at showing their emotions, both positive and negative. Their "facial expressions" are made up of movements of the head, ears and trunk, with which the elephant can express all sorts of, often subtle, shades of good or bad mood.

Elephants are extremely caring and sensitive to other members of their group, as well as to other animal species, which is considered a highly advanced form of intelligence. For example, elephants feel very deeply the loss of someone from the herd. They can gather near a dead body for several days. Cases of "burials" have been recorded, when elephants covered their dead comrades with a layer of vegetation.

Elephants have an incredibly good memory. A person who treated them well or badly, elephants remember all their lives. There are many examples when the owner offended the elephant, and only years later the elephant took revenge on him, and sometimes even killed him.

As we already know, the use of tools by animals directly indicates the ability to intelligent activity. To determine this, the following studies were conducted at the Washington Zoo. In the elephant enclosure, fruits and young bamboo shoots were hung high on a tree. Animals, standing on the ground, could not even reach them with their trunks. Not far from this place, the researchers put a stand in the form of a cube and began to observe ...

At first, the elephant simply moved the cube around the enclosure, and in fairness it should be noted that he did not immediately figure out what to do: the experiment had to be repeated 7 times. And suddenly an insight descended on the elephant: he got up, went straight to the cube, pushed it to the place where the treat was hanging and, standing on it with his front legs, took it out with his trunk. After that, even when the cube was out of reach, the elephant used other items - a car tire and a large ball.

It is believed that elephants have a good musical ear and musical memory, and are also able to distinguish melodies from three notes. In general, these huge animals are amazing artists. They are well known for their ability to draw on the ground while holding a stick with their trunk. In Thailand, they even made an attraction when several Thai elephants drew abstract drawings in front of the audience. True, it is not known whether the elephants really understood what they were doing.