There's a saying that goes “an elephant never forgets,” however we've been wrong all this time.
Turns out the bottlenose dolphin has an incredibly impressive memory. In fact, they have the longest memory of any non-human animal out there.
This cognitive ability and sophistication puts them in line with that of humans, chimpanzees and the aforementioned elephants.
They are said to be able to remember the whistle of a companion even after 20 years of being separated. I can barely remember what I had for lunch!
Tests were done using 53 different bottlenose dolphins, each with records about who they lived with at the science facility. They found that each dolphin develops a sort of whistle or call that is unique and belongs solely to them, almost like a name.
When recordings were played of their old room mate (tank mate?), the dolphins showed sign of recognition as opposed to recordings of stranger dolphin calls, even though they had been separated for more than 20 years.
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