During a Southern California earthquake, African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park rapidly sprang into action to protect their two young calves.
On Monday morning, a video camera in the enclosure captured the mighty adult elephants — Ndlula, Umngani and Khosi — immediately moving into an “alert circle” to protect their two 7-year-old calves, Zuli and Mkhaya, as the ground shook.
The elephants stayed close together for several minutes after the shaking, with ears flapping as they assessed the danger around them, according to the video.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the elephants stayed together for four minutes after the earthquake before exiting the circle but still stayed close together.
According to NBC San Diego, the epicenter of the earthquake was near Julian with a magnitude of 5.2. The quake was felt from Los Angeles to Tijuana, Mexico, with several aftershocks following.
The quake caused items to be dislodged from store shelves in the small town of Julian and boulders to roll onto rural roads in San Diego County, but no injuries or major damages were reported, according to The Associated Press.
However, the family of elephants was still spooked as they huddled again for a brief moment, an hour after an aftershock, before dispersing again, reported AP.
What is an elephant ‘alert circle’?
An “alert circle” is a defensive behavior elephants use in the wild to protect the youngest members of the herd from danger, reported Los Angeles Times.
“It was really neat to see them come together as a herd to protect the juvenile and then immediately try to survey their habitat,” said Mindy Albright, a curator for mammals at the zoo, according to Los Angeles Times. “Elephants have an incredible sense of hearing — they can feel sound through their feet — so you can see them pause after they all formed the alert circle to see if they could get any more information from the environment.”
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance stated that this video is an example of “the strong social family structure in elephant herds,” according to NBC San Diego.
But this isn’t the first time that the San Diego Zoo Safari Park has had its elephants form an “alert circle.” In 2010, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that shook the Baja California area caused the mammals to react in the same way, Albright told Los Angeles Times.