Matriarch Tokwe Naps Peacefully, and Fishan Takes Care of the Young Elephants

Elephant carer Godknows watches over Tokwe as she sleeps and joins Fishan and the youngsters: Khanyisa, Timisa and Pisa feeding on the hillside.

You can find out more about elephants’ sleeping and napping habits in our blog —https://herd.org.za/blog/let-sleeping-elephants-lie-how-elephants-sleep/

Wild African elephants spend most of their days either eating or looking for food and drinking or taking mud and sand baths and this leaves them with very little time for naps. While another of Africa’s giants, the rhino, takes a siesta during the hottest part of the day and sleeps deeply and for up to eight hours a day, the African elephant works straight through.
Unlike us, they don’t require eight hours of uninterrupted sleep to be able to function the next day.

When they do nap, they lean against a tree or large mound / hillside or simply rest their trunk on the ground and doze.

Elephants’ six inch thick skulls make measuring the brain’s electrical activity rather difficult, but it is thought that a reason for elephants needing to lie down to sleep from time to time is for REM sleep to occur, for the benefit of this deep sleep on creating their renowned remarkable memories. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is thought to help with the consolidation of memories but further studies in elephants, humans and possible fruit-fly are underway.