Many autistic people like to watch constantly moving objects, because it stimulates reticular formation function in the brain, which governs, amongst other things, sensory awareness, spatial awareness, posture, balance, concentration, and the discrimination of meaningful from meaningless stimuli. This is necessary in order to attend to the external environment, including touch, sight and sound.
The gigantic appearance of elephants , up to 9 plus feet tall and 4 plus tons, coupled with the habitual constant movement of their enormous ears, trunk, tail and legs to brush away annoying insects and balance body temperature, provides the stimulus necessary to prepare the brain for this learning process of response to external stimuli. Also, a full-grown elephant can consume up to 250 kilos of vegetation per day, making foraging and eating an all-day activity, and they are normally gentle, tolerant creatures. These factors combine to make well-trained elephants ideal subjects for people with autism to learn to interact and care for them.
