Elephants are known for their impressive memories, but they are also adept meteorologists, a new study claims.

Researchers say the large animals can detect an approaching rainstorm up to 150 miles away.

And they think elephants' forecasting abilities could be used to help conservationists monitor herds to keep them safe from poachers.

Unsurprisingly, considering the size of their ears, elephants have good hearing and can detect very low frequencies, PopSci reported.

Scientists believe the creatures can hear low rumbles of thunder and the sound of heavy rain miles away to predict when wet weather is approaching.

They came to this conclusion after studying herds of elephants that suddenly migrated in Namibia. The behaviour has previously not been explained, according to the study published in the journal Plos One.

Oliver Frauenfeld, a geology professor at Texas A&M University, said: “They've been observed to change the places they go and the speeds they go rather quickly.”

To uncover what prompted such movement, Prof Frauenfeld and his team potted the movements of nine elephants wearing GPS trackers belonging to different herds -- for a total of seven years.

They found that the elephants constantly changes course during the rainy season in Namibia, between January and March.

The experts observed that the elephants could 'sense' that were hundreds of miles away to predict and move towards the rainstorms.

Frauenfeld said: “They need the rain. After a prolonged dry season, once the elephants hear the rain, they start moving towards it and it allows them to get the water sooner.”

He thinks that knowing how elephants chase storms will help conservationists predict their movements and guard them from poachers.