Why Do An Elephant Never Forgets

An Elephant Never Forgets Have any species gone extinct in your lifetime? Imagine an animal you see every day, gone, forgotten. That is a real possibility for elephants over the next 15 years. It may not seem like a pressing issue, but elephants are dying at an alarming rate. According to Melissa Sciacca, Executive Director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), one elephant is killed approximately every 25 minutes. That comes to an astounding total of approximately 21 thousand per year. These gentle giants are at an enormous risk, and something needs to be done about it. The elephant is not just some dumb, lumbering creature that the world can afford to lose. It turns out that they are one of the closest animals to humans in terms of emotional capacity and far surpass us in terms of memory power. Elephants are sentient, emotional animals that are at the risk of becoming extinct; if more citizens do not become concerned about elephant conservation, the entire species as we know it will disappear.

These, the largest living land mammals, are at risk of being terminated by humans. Elephants are a keystone species; meaning if they became extinct, extreme consequences would come to all wildlife around them. These gentle giants are quickly being wiped out by poaching, human-wildlife conflict, and abuse. The underlying issue within all of this is the general lack of respect for elephant life. Action needs to be taken to prevent these incredibly intelligent and emotional creatures from disappearing. As the article The Elephant within suggests, “It 's hard enough to interpret other humans ' thoughts and motives--let alone an animal’s.” An elephant remembers its entire life. They have memory power that reaches beyond the capability of even humans. They, as a species, do not deserve to ever be