When the earthquake hit, these large images formed a protective circle at their lowest point

Mkhaya, a seven-year-old elephant at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, knows her family is back.

Mkaya's cattle herd wasted no time creating protective barriers around her when a magnitude 5.2 earthquake hit the area on Monday, known as the “alarm circle.”

The phenomenon was captured in the video, giving the zoo staff a smile at the keen instincts of African elephants, effective communication skills and strong family connections.

“It’s amazing to get them involved in the environment and to have the signal they get appropriately made,” Mindy Albright, a mammal curator in Escondido, California, told 1988. happen Host Neil Coxer.

“It’s amazing to see these family bonds so strong that they immediately gather to take care of each other.”

The herd members were foraging for food as the rumble began.

They immediately stopped their work and began to look around. Then they gathered in the center of the fence and stood completely apart for a moment.

“They've stuck out their ears. They're listening. They can also feel the sound vibrations through their feet as they walk for a few miles,” Albright said.

“So, at that moment, they're really just freezing, trying to gather as much information as possible so that they can decide what we're going to do next? This is the survival strategy that all elephants have.”

She said they were talking to each other, and it was entirely possible.

“The elephants also have the ability to communicate at a frequency that is much lower than what we hear, so they could have been communicating all the time. We just couldn't hear it.”

Brother stand up to defend sister

They don't take long to reach a consensus. Three adult women – Ndlula, Umngani and Khosi quickly surrounded Mkhaya, facing outward, ready to protect her.

Mkhaya's half-brother Zuli, also only seven years old, joined older women to face part of the barrier.

This prompted Khosi, a teenager who raised Zuli with his biological mother, Ndlula, who repeatedly tapped the young male with her trunk.

“Almost like she was checking him,” Albright said. “Maybe wondering, 'How are you outside the circle and not inside?''

The herd of elephants is composed of adult women, usually the patriarch and her female relatives, as well as teenagers of two genders. When men reach puberty, between the ages of 10 and 15, they leave the herd and leave to find a partner.

Zuli is still a child, but he is close to that age, Albright said.

“When they walk away [from the circle]he still felt like touching his mother. Therefore, he is not completely confident as an adult bull. “He's still a young man. But it's just a moment when he starts to show how he's evolved in his family community,” she said.

Chase Ladue, a conservation scientist who works with elephants at the Oklahoma City Zoo, said the alarm circle is a completely natural elephant behavior that is often displayed in the wild.

When there is any form of perceived threat (unknown noise, approaching humans, fighting animals), adult women in the herd of cattle instinctively surround the teenagers.

“Elephants often have close ties with each other, working together to find food and other resources and defend each other against potential threats,” Radu said.

He said this was a fact that happened in captivity and a good sign that the facility kept the Cattle Natural Family Unit intact.

“These social functions exist even in places like zoos, and we strive to replicate the social structure of nature and provide elephants with opportunities to express their natural behavior,” he said.

The earthquake ends up with no danger to the large elephants. It caused some minor damage to Julian, a mountainous area near the epicenter, but no one was hurt.

Shortly after passing, the herd returned to their foraging. About an hour later, when the aftershock hit, they shrank again, and once they were sure everyone was safe, they were dispersed.

Albright said they act exactly as the elephant should, which is exciting.

“This is just a wonderful example of a strong family bond that looks like a herd of cattle,” she said.

Documents with the Associated Press. Interview with Mindy Albright by Mariela Torroba Hennigen.