Chimpanzees
It will surprise many of you to see chimpanzees on this list of animals with bad memories. We consider chimpanzees to be some of the smartest animals in the world. If not THE smartest.
They are able to solve and understand various complex problems and tasks. The reason chimpanzees are so intelligent is that the part of their brain (responsible for learning and developing) never stops growing. The same as in humans.
Chimpanzees are our closest relatives, with whom we share 98% of our DNA. But how come the chimps have such a developed brain capacity but a poor short memory?
Researchers have reported that chimpanzees forget an event within 20 seconds.
Bees
We are familiar with the bees’ ability to make collective decisions when selecting nectar sources. But that is not all.
A recent study at Queen Mary University of London explained that bees are intelligent enough to use tools and learn by observing.
Bees were trained to know the correct location of the ball. Subsequently, to obtain a reward, bees had to move a displaced ball to the defined location.
Bees that observed a demonstration of the technique from a live or model demonstrator learned the task more efficiently than bees observing a “ghost” demonstration (ball moved via magnet) or without a demonstration.
Baboons
Baboons are extremely smart animals that enjoy spending time with their family. Throughout numerous experiments, biologists have found that baboons are able to understand language and words in a sequence.
Namely, in a study, conducted, a group of baboons had to choose between two cups of peanuts. Over 75% successfully chose cups that contained larger quantities of peanuts.
However, baboons are animals with a not-so-great short-term memory. In fact, baboons would forget an event within 15 seconds.
Hamsters
Hamsters are rodents whose population as pets is growing rapidly. Considering how cute they are, it is not a surprise they became such popular pets. But what about their mental capacities and memory?
Hamsters have a poor memory. According to the owners, hamsters forget what they are doing in the middle of the action.
It is believed that the hamster’s short-term memory is no longer than 3 seconds.
Seals
Sea lions are an especially intelligent species of seal that can understand words, commands, sign language, and even mimic human language and laughter.
Seal lions have great long-term memory and they may need one year to learn how to perform a trick, but even after three months of not performing it, they would remember the trick perfectly.
As regards their short-term memory, it is not that great. Seals will forget an action after 18 seconds.
