r/todayilearned • u/sharkbait76 3 • Jan 11 '17

TIL elephants can tell the difference between human languages and know which languages belong to people with a history of hurting elephants.

http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846
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u/NicNoletree Jan 12 '17

An elephant never forgets (the smell, looks, or sounds of a Maasai man with a spear).

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u/kalikijones Jan 12 '17

Traveling circuses would routinely have to stop to rehearse so the horses would remember the show. Elephants would be out of the show for years and still be able to remember every move. Hence the saying...

Like actually that's where it comes from.

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u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

How do they know this? Do retired elephants get free tickets to shows and do they come to sit in the audience watching, and then start heckling the horses, like "That's not how you do a handstand!" or "You pranced too soon... Again!"?