However, one morning a few weeks ago the elephants weren’t active at all; in fact, quite a few of our elephants were still asleep! I am frequently asked how elephants sleep, and you may be surprised to hear that they do sleep lying down. The popular assumption is that elephants always sleep standing up, which can be true for a quick cat nap. However, elephants lie down on the ground when they sleep soundly for a few hours each night. There are even records of elephants snoring while deep in sleep! I have also seen at least one of our adult females, Swazi, kicking her feet while sleeping, much like dogs do when they are dreaming.
We are continually learning about the nighttime patterns of the herd through the data we are collecting from our elephants’ GPS collars, which are worn for 24-hour periods to record their movements (see post, How Far Do Elephants Walk in One Day?). We are able to plot the GPS points onto a map of the Wild Animal Park elephant yard and see exactly where that elephant was at any given time. What we have found is that some of our elephants may have preferred sleeping spots, as noted by repeated GPS points in certain locations over a few nighttime hours. For example, it seems our dominant female, Swazi, wanders into the indoor barn to sleep for a few hours, whereas another female, Ndula, seems to prefer the pool at the far end of the yard (when it is empty, of course!). So our GPS collars not only tell us how far the elephants walk and where they walk, but also let us know where they like to sleep.
Emily Rothwell is a Heller Fellow Research Associate with the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.
Watch the Park’s elephants daily on Elephant Cam.