The shortest sleeping mammals: African elephants sleep just two hours daily (Watch)

Image credit: Wits University official/YouTube

New Delhi: Like humans, animals too have different sleeping patterns and duration. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers reveal that African elephants sleep for just an average of two hours a day and regularly - the shortest known sleep time of any land mammal.

The new study contradicts the previous studies of sleep in captive elephants have shown that they sleep for four to six hours per day.

However, "in their natural habitat, wild, free-ranging elephants sleep only for two hours per day, the least amount of sleep of any mammal studied to date, but this appears to be related to their large body size," said Paul Manger from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa.

The researchers also found that the largest land animal can also survive for nearly two days without sleep.

For the study, the team monitored two free-roaming African elephant matriarchs in Chobe National Park in Botswana for 35 days. The elephants were implanted with an actiwatch, in the trunk to track sleep accurately and a collar with a gyroscope to track sleeping position.

They found that the elephants slept an average of two hours a day.

On several days, the elephants were found to survive without sleep for up to 46 hours.

They travelled long distances of around 30 km during these periods, possibly due to disturbances such as lions or poachers and were found to sleep lying down only every few nights.

"In addition, it appears that elephants only go into REM (rapid eye movement), or dreaming, sleep every three to four days, which makes elephant sleep unique," Manger added.

Video credit: Wits University official/YouTube

The study has been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

(With IANS inputs)