Smarty Pants

Having the largest brain in the animal kingdom, elephants are among the most intelligent creatures on earth. Competing alongside whales, dolphins, monkeys, and apes; an elephant's brain allows it to solve complex problems and exhibit complicated emotions. Their memory storage space is much larger than that of a human; and the volume of their brain used in cognitive processing exceeds that of any other land animal—including all primate species.

Thought to be highly altruistic, elephants occasionally show concern for the welfare and safety of other animals and humans. Such sympathy and deep emotions are often displayed in their death rituals. As the only other species outside of humans known to have ceremonies surrounding death, elephants often bury their deceased and revisit the site several times for a period of days; all the while whaling and mourning their loss.

Their behaviors surrounding grief, mimicry, the use of tools, self-awareness, compassion, memory, play, and family all suggest elephants are a highly intelligent species capable of learning, processing, and remembering more than we, as humans, might imagine.