Elephants at San Diego Zoo React Swiftly to Earthquake

When a 5.2-magnitude earthquake struck Southern California on Monday morning, a herd of elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park acted quickly to form a protective circle around their young. The quake, which was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles 120 miles away, caused minor disruptions but no major damage or injuries. The elephants' reaction was caught on video, the AP reports. After initially scattering when the shaking began, the older elephants—Ndlula, Umngani, and Khosi—quickly encircled the 7-year-old calves, Zuli and Mkhaya, in an instinctive behavior known as an "alert circle." The older elephants faced outward, ears spread, for about four minutes, then dispersed but continued to stay close to each other, NBC 7 reports.

Once the circle has been formed, "they sort of freeze as they gather information about where the danger is," says Mindy Albright, a curator at the park. The herd repeated the huddle about an hour later during an aftershock. The video shows the female calf seeking refuge among the adults while Zuli, a young male calf, remained on the edge of the circle. Khosi, a teenage female, appeared to reassure and guide him back into safety with repeated gentle taps. Albright noted: "It's so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing—that any parent does, which is protect their children." Meanwhile, in the land of humans, many were praising California's early earthquake warning system, which alerted people up to 10 seconds before the shaking hit, the Los Angeles Times reports. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)