Elephants form protective circle during San Diego quake
During a 5.2 magnitude earthquake in San Diego, the elephants at the zoo reacted swiftly. See how these intelligent animals formed a special defensive formation in just seconds.
During the 5.2 magnitude earthquake that hit San Diego, California, these massive mammals from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park displayed extraordinary concern for their young. They quickly formed a protective formation with the young elephants in the center and the adults on the outside, ready to defend the group. The zoo shared footage from the cameras.
When the ground began to tremble, the elephant herd quickly gathered in a defensive circle to shield their young ones, according to Mindy Albright, curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, during an interview with ABC Network.
How do elephants react to threats?
The video from the park shows five African elephants initially standing calmly in the morning sun, but when the ground begins to shake, they start running in different directions. As described by the mammal curator at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, in a threatening situation, senior elephants such as Ndlula, Umngani, and Khosi quickly surround and protect the two seven-year-old calves, Zuli and Mkhaya. "Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals that have the ability to feel sound through their feet," she added.
Although the earthquake didn’t cause serious damage, it did create anxiety among the animals. When they form a circle, "they sort of freeze as they gather information about where the danger is," Mindy Albright explains.
Elephants behave like humans
During the incident, one of the calves, Zuli, took shelter among the adults, while the other, the only male, stayed on the edge of the circle. A zoo worker explains that he was trying to show his bravery. "Khosi, a teenager who helped raise him along with his biological mother, Ndlula, repeatedly tapped him on the back with her trunk, and even on the face, as if patting him to say 'things are OK' and 'stay back in the circle'," Albright told "ABC Network."
Zuli, as a young elephant, is still treated with tenderness, but his role will change when he grows up and joins the group of adult males. "It’s so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing – that any parent does, which is protect their children," Albright concludes.
About an hour later, when there was an aftershock, the elephants regrouped and then dispersed once they ensured everyone was safe.
The earthquake was felt from San Diego all the way to Los Angeles, 120 miles away. The tremors caused rockslides on rural roads in San Diego County and knocked items off shelves in the small mountain town of Julian, but there were no injuries or serious damages. However, the elephants were clearly disturbed.
