San Diego (AP) – While the ground trembled with an earthquake of 5.2 coarse, a herd of elephants from the Safari Park of the San Diego Zoo entered action to protect their young people.
A video photo of their speaker in the park on Monday morning shows the five African elephants standing in the morning sun before the camera shakes and run in different directions. Then, the older elephants – Ndlula, Umngani, Khosi – jostle to surround and protect the two calves of 7 years Zuli and Mkhaya from any possible threat.
They remain huddled for several minutes while the older elephants look outside, seeming to be ready, their ears spread and beat – even after stopping the tilting.
The earthquake was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles, 120 miles (193 kilometers). He sent rocks falling on rural roads in the county of San Diego and overthrew the shelves of stores in the small mountain town of Julian near the epicenter, but did not cause any major injury or damage.
But he frightened the elephants.
Once in a circle, “they sort of freezing themselves by gathering information on the place where the danger is located,” said Mindy Albright, conservative of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Elephants are very intelligent and social animals that have the ability to feel sound through their feet. When they perceive a threat, they often come together in an “alert circle”, generally with the young group gathered in the center and adults outside to defend the group.
In the video, one of the calves can be seen running to refuge between adults, a group of matriarchs who have helped to raise it. But the other calf, the only man, stayed on the edge of the circle, wanting to show his courage and independence, said Albright. Meanwhile, the female elephant, Khosi, a teenager who helped to raise him with his biological mother, Ndlula, typed it several times in the back with his trunk, and even on the face, as if she tapped him to say: “Things are going well” and “stay back in the circle”.
Zuli is still a baby and is changed as such, said Albright, but his role will change in the coming years when he becomes a bull and moves to join a group of singles while female elephants remain with family unity throughout their lives.
“It's so great to see them do what we should all do – that any parent does, which protects their children,” said Albright.
About an hour later, when a replica struck, they briefly nestled, then dispersed once they determined that everyone was safe.
