A herd of elephants have been caught taking a nap in this stunning drone footage.
Aerial video shows the jumbo family snoozing on their sides in a tight-knit ring among the bushes in the Tamil Nadu forest in India on May 14.
The brown bodies of the five elephants stand out against the dark green shrubs in the footage. The three calves – one of them a newborn – rested behind the adults at the Anamalai Tiger Reserve – 370 square miles of tropical jungle.
The animals – sleeping in a remarkably similar way to each other in the long grass, their trunks tucked under their chins and their legs crossed – all vary in size.
The largest appears to be a fully grown adult, while the three other slightly smaller elephants also in the group are all adolescents.
A herd of elephants have been caught taking a nap in this stunning drone footage
Aerial video shows the jumbo family snoozing on their sides in a tight-knit ring among the bushes in the Tamil Nadu forest in India on May 14
The animals – sleeping in remarkable similar ways in the long grass, their trunks tucked under their chins and their legs crossed – all vary in size. They appear to have formed a protective ring around a baby elephant that can be seen curled up in the middle of the herd
One of the mid-sized animals looks to be standing.
At the centre of the herd is an adorable baby elephant, who seen fidgeting in the footage, its little ears twitching back and forth.
It appears to be being protected by the others who are lying in a ring around it.
Supriya Sahu, a wildlife officer in Tamil Nadu Forest Department, said: ‘Observe how the baby elephant is given first-class security by the family.
‘Also how the young elephant is checking the presence of other family members for reassurance. It’s so similar to our own families.’
This is not the first time elephants have been caught napping in this way.
In 2021, a herd of elephants that became famous in China stopped for a well-earned rest after travelling for 300 miles across the country. They too were seen sleeping in a ring around their young, tucked up against each other in the long grass.
The group of 15 animals had escaped from their nature reserve and were tracked while wandering towards the city of Kunming, in Yunnan province.
During their epic journey, the elephants were caught at night trotting down urban streets by security cameras, filmed from the air by more than a dozen drones and followed by those seeking to minimise damage and keep people and elephants safe.
But the wild animals caused mayhem by walking down urban roads and sticking their trunks through residential windows in Kunming.
This was despite officials’ efforts to divert them away from residential areas.
In 2021, a herd of elephants that became famous in China stopped for a well-earned rest after travelling for 300 miles across the country. Like the elephants in India, they too were seen sleeping in a ring around their young, tucked up against each other in the long grass
The group of 15 animals had escaped from their nature reserve and were tracked while wandering towards the city of Kunming, in China’s Yunnan province
Although the elephants caused some chaos to locals in their path, the herd became a viral sensation in China at a time most of the country was in Covid-19 lockdown.
Videos of them trotting through empty streets delighted many, offering a glimpse of freedom that at the time was not afforded to many people at the time.
Asian elephants have been listed as endangered since 1986, with the wild population having decreased by an estimated 50 percent since the 1930s and 1940s.
The estimated 27,000 – 31,000 elephants in India are threatened by loss of their habitat, environmental degradation and habitat fragmentation.