It might be appropriate to change the well-known expression 'memory of an elephant' to 'memory of an elephant seal', as researchers think these animals can remember rivals from at least a year prior.
Named for their long snout, which looks like an elephant’s trunk, male elephant seals fight for dominance during the breeding season: the victor wins better access to mate with the harem of females. These battles can be brutal but aren’t usually fatal, so the bulls have a good chance of bumping into their rivals again the following year.
“Male elephant seals come back to the exact same breeding location year after year and engage in competitive interactions with a number of familiar individuals,” says Caroline Casey, research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a statement. “It would make sense, then, that they would retain some memory of past rivals over multiple seasons.”
Casey and her team wondered if the males they see returning to Año Nuevo Island, off the coast of California, each year could remember their competitors from previous skirmishes. They decided to run an experiment to find out.
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At the start of the breeding season, they played elephant seals a recording of opponents from previous encounters. The bull’s reaction seemed to suggest that they remembered the result of the combat.
“When males heard their most familiar dominant rival from last year, they tended to orient faster, exhibit a faster posture change, and often would retreat from the speaker,” says Casey. “Their responses were less severe when they were presented with their subordinate rival from the previous season, and sometimes they would even approach the speaker.”
The males didn’t seem to display as much of a response when they heard calls from elephant seals from other colonies that they hadn’t come into contact with. The researchers see this as evidence that the animals remember specific individuals, rather than just posturing when they hear any male of the same species.
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Casey presented this new research during the Sixth Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and Acoustical Society of Japan, which took place in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The project is part of ongoing research to learn more about the factors and traits that contribute to successful reproduction among elephant seals. “Essentially, what does it take to become an alpha seal?” says Casey.
Top image: Northern elephant seals. Credit: Getty
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