Study uses fitbit-like tracker to monitor sleep patterns of wild animals
A recent study published in research journal PLUS ONE has found that sleep in wild animals is likely not related to sunrise and sunset, and that other environmental factors are more crucial to the timing of sleep. According to University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) Anatomical Sciences professor Paul Manger this is the first study to indicate this.
Research conducted by nongovernmental organisation Elephants without Borders, together with the Chobe National Park, in Botswana, Wits and the University of California, in Los Angeles, used data loggers similar to wireless-enabled data tracking device ‘fitbit’ to study the sleeping patterns of wild animals, mainly focusing on elephants.
Two matriarch elephants had data loggers implanted in their trunks and – by installing a global positioning system collar with a gyroscope around their necks – the team could find out where and when the elephants were lying down to sleep.
“We reasoned that measuring the activity of the trunk, the most mobile and active appendage of the elephant, would be crucial, making the reasonable assumption that if the trunk is still for five minutes or more, the elephant is likely to be asleep,” he noted.
The team also found that the wild elephants could sleep while standing up or lying down. Lying down to sleep only happened every three or four days and for about an hour, and they were only able to go into rapid eye movement (REM), or dreaming, sleep, while lying down.
“REM sleep is thought to be important for consolidating memories, but our findings are not consistent with this hypothesis of the function of REM sleep, as the elephant has well-documented long-term memories, but does not need REM sleep every day to form these memories,” said Manger.
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