Book contents
- Elephant Seals
- Elephant Seals
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Origins, Misnomers, and Bottleneck
- 2 Back from the Abyss, Population Recovery, and Genetic Aftermath
- 3 The Year of the Seal
- 4 Fieldwork 101
- 5 Adapting to Life at Sea and on Land
- 6 The Cost of Living in a Seal Harem
- 7 Coito Ergo Sum
- 8 Females
- 9 Diving, Foraging, and Migration
- 10 Development
- 11 Sleep When You Can
- 12 What Is All the Noise About?
- 13 Comparisons, Unsolved Mysteries, and Conclusions
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
11 - Sleep When You Can
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 September 2021
Book contents
- Elephant Seals
- Elephant Seals
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Origins, Misnomers, and Bottleneck
- 2 Back from the Abyss, Population Recovery, and Genetic Aftermath
- 3 The Year of the Seal
- 4 Fieldwork 101
- 5 Adapting to Life at Sea and on Land
- 6 The Cost of Living in a Seal Harem
- 7 Coito Ergo Sum
- 8 Females
- 9 Diving, Foraging, and Migration
- 10 Development
- 11 Sleep When You Can
- 12 What Is All the Noise About?
- 13 Comparisons, Unsolved Mysteries, and Conclusions
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
Since elephant seals are submerged 90% of the time they are at sea and they are at sea 8 to 10 months of the year, depending on sex, when do they sleep? They hold their breath while sleeping on land, as if they are diving. This suggests that they do not sleep at sea during the short periods at the surface. A good case can be made that they sleep during dives. This is reasonable because heart rate slows and metabolism decreases during diving just as it does during sleep. On land, elephants sleep whenever they can, day or night, that is, when the entire colony is quiet.
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- Elephant SealsPushing the Limits on Land and at Sea, pp. 129 - 133Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021