Elephants' Rare Ability: Giant Animal Sleeps Only 2 Hours a Day

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The elephant is the largest animal on land that sleeps only two hours every day. A new study reveals that this largest animal can go without sleep nearly two days.

Mail Online reports that an elephant can only sleep two hours on a regular basis. A research team has collected evidence and explores that larger mammals sleep less. The research team spent 35 days in Chobe National Park, Botswana.

The researchers tried to monitor two African elephant matriarchs in Chobe National Park. They put an electronic monitoring device in the trunk to get the actual data about sleep. The team wanted to study the free-roaming elephants.

Apart from the electronic monitoring device, the team also used a collar that contains a gyroscope. The researchers tried to track the sleeping position of the elephant. The interesting fact is, they surprisingly revealed that the two African elephants slept an average two hours a day.

The study clearly shows that elephant is the only land mammal that sleeps for the shortest time. Previously, many other studies were performed, but they maintain a captive setting to monitor this largest land animal. But, this time the researchers tried to get a more accurate result, so they preferred an open and natural setting.

During the research time, the two African elephants didn't sleep for 46 hours and covered a distance of 30kms at a stretch. It was very rare to see the giant animals were taking rest. Live Science reported that the two animals showed very little rapid eye movement or REM.

The elephants had the REM only after three to four hours. This fact is unique and very rare too. The study unveils one more interesting fact and that is the sleeping and the waking hours of an elephant don't depend on light.

Temperature and humidity are the two main reasons behind the sleeping and waking hours of the elephants. New surprises always haunt people as they enlighten many unknown facts. This new study also explores much new information that must be helpful for future research.

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