Elephants can recall seasonal events such as fruiting trees or rainfall patterns with remarkable accuracy. Their movements often align precisely with annual cycles. This timing knowledge is learned and passed through generations. It allows elephants to arrive at resources exactly when they are available. Such temporal awareness is rare in animals.
It matters because timing reduces competition and starvation. Knowing when matters as much as knowing where.
This explains the precision of elephant migrations. They are guided by memory, not randomness.
Elephants have been observed arriving at fruit trees within days of peak ripeness year after year. Younger elephants learn timing by following elders.
African Journal of Ecology (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)