WE often say that someone with a strong memory has a memory “like and elephant”, while someone who is forgetful might have a memory “like a goldfish”.
But can we really compare our memories to that of animals? A recent study showed that animals don’t have much recollection of specific events at all, but instead, they store away information about what could help them survive.
The study covered 25 species ranging from dolphins to bees, and found that the average short-term memory span of animals was 27 seconds!
Dogs forget an event within 2 minutes. Chimpanzees lasted around 20 seconds but were found to be worse than rats at remembering things. The question is, how do animals remember people if their short-term memory spans are so bad? Animals such as dogs
have different ways of recalling, and one very powerful way is associating scents with certain things.
