Elephants are one of the largest and smartest animals on the planet. The weight of some individuals reaches 5-7 tons, the height is 4 m. Massive body, rather large head, powerful trunk, thick legs - the elephant gives the impression of a fat, clumsy animal. However, these animals can move surprisingly quickly and silently. But elephants sleep little, only 2-3 hours a day, and quite peculiar.
Elephants are social animals
It has long been noted that elephants are animals that care for their fellows or a flock, in more scientific terms - social animals. Most often, the division into flocks in elephants is determined by gender, between adults. The cubs walk with the female elephants until they grow up, then the division occurs again.
A flock means a lot to elephants, one might say - for them it is their whole life. Despite the fact that elephants are the largest land mammals, individually they are easy prey for various predators and poachers. Due to their impressive size, they are very clumsy, and young individuals, all the more, will not be able to fight back in an emergency.
Since ancient times, elephants have been used by humans, not only for the sake of hunting for valuable tusks, but also as assistants, circus performers, etc. Due to the rarity of these animals and the increased hunting, elephants are listed in the Red Book and are carefully guarded.
How elephants sleep
In what position elephants sleep, most often depends on how old they are. So, the cubs, finally immature and still only learning everything, usually sleep on their side, while the adults - in a standing position, gathered in a tight ring around the babies so that nothing threatens them at night. Only after making sure that the whole flock is safe, they fall asleep like a big and friendly family.
However, elephants never sleep all at once, they always leave the sentinels (depending on the size of the flock, usually one or two elephants), who monitor the perimeter and, at the slightest danger, will be able to wake everyone up. To prevent enemies from sneaking up in the dark, elephants usually prefer to sleep during the day.
Old elephants hug a tree during sleep to better keep their balance or sleep on their side like cubs. Why exactly standing for scientists remains a mystery to this day. Most explain this by the desire to avoid various influences from the soil, overheating during the day or cooling at night. It is believed that such a position is convenient in case of a sudden attack, since the elephant is still a clumsy animal and a slow rise in which case it can destroy him, and in a standing position, he is always ready to fight back. Some believe that such a feature of sleep remained in elephants from their possible ancestors - mammoths. They slept standing up so as not to get cooling at night, at high negative temperatures in their habitats. Even the available fur could not save them from hypothermia.
