There is always new and fascinating information to learn when it comes to elephants, like the fact that calves raised in orphanages seem to enjoy sleeping similar to how humans normally sleep: in a comfy, safe and warm spot.
According to HERD, (Hoedspruit Elephant Rehabilitation and Development) baby Khanyisa loves to fall asleep on a freshly prepared bed of grass or straw, usually accompanied by her favourite colourful blanket. This adorable bedtime routine isn’t just an odd little quirk either. The bed of straw and blanket keep Khanyisa warm during the evening when her body temperature drops and she is unable to get warmth from her mother.
Baby elephants raised at HERD’s orphanage get around 12-13 hours of sleep when they’re around three months old, but that gets reduced to around 7-8 hours once they’ve reached one-year-old. This is a huge contrast to the sleeping patterns of wild elephants. On average, a herd of wild elephants are only able to grab around two to three hours of sleep a day, usually while leaning against a tree.
Elephants choose to nap against a large tree or mound instead of laying down because of their immense size. Similar to horses, if an elephant lays down for too long, the weight of their body could prevent blood flow to certain parts of their body, resulting in injury or pressure wounds. Alternatively, some elephants also fall asleep by simply resting their trunk on the ground and slowly dozing off.
Surprisingly, elephants have something else in common with humans: the tendency to yawn when it sees a fellow member of the herd yawn. This knee jerk reaction to yawn is called ‘intraspecific contagious yawning’ and the behaviour can be seen in other animals like chimpanzees and dogs, and of course humans.
Take a look at little Khanyisa’s adorable sleep routine below:
Image credit: Screenshot/ Night-time in the Nursery with Khanyisa & Lammie
