Interesting facts about elephant seals: they are able to hold their breath and dive into the depths of the ocean to sleep

Arabia Weather - Elephant seals resort to taking a nap while swimming in the ocean in search of food or during their migration, but this nap is sometimes at a depth of up to 1,200 feet underwater, in order to protect themselves from predators.

Elephant seals dive deep to protect themselves from predators

A group of scientists, led by biology professor Jessica Kendall Barr, at the University of California, USA, discovered that seals resort to sleeping for intermittent periods of ten minutes at a time, a total of only two hours a day, under the surface of the sea.

This was discovered by studying the brain waves of seals. Seals usually sleep half their day on the beach during the mating season, but they sleep much less than that when they are on their journey searching for food or during their migration, which lasts months.

The seals fall asleep smoothly, suddenly stopping swimming and sinking slowly and smoothly, looking like falling leaves. Sometimes they remain for minutes at the bottom of the deep ocean. It seems that the seals can hold their breath for the period they need to take their nap.

Sources: websites