Recently, a video surfaced on the internet showing a herd of elephants protecting a calf during a massive earthquake in San Diego Zoo, California, USA.
The zoo authorities immediately captured the moment and shared it on social media, and netizens were amazed after watching the elephants’ behaviour.
In The News:
Recently a 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit San Diego, California and a fascinating footage of elephant behaviour was captured in the camera where the elephants were making an “alert circle” to protect the calf.
Kristi Burtis, vice president of the wildlife care at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, recently talked about the incident and expressed her happiness that now people can notice the natural behaviour from elephant herds that the zoo workers watch everyday.
Such behaviours from elephants may seem unusual to normal human beings but in the wild they also protect each other in a collaborative manner from natural calamity.
Burtis also revealed when the earthquake hit, she was outside and suddenly heard a loud boom. The zoo workers quickly began checking on the animals, both in person as well as video monitors.
While checking the video footage, the staff noticed an unconventional behaviour of the elephant herd as they started to move towards one another and create a circle.
The elephants were in line facing where that sound was coming from. Then, they created the circle to have a 360-degree view to assess where the potential threat was coming from.
What Is An “Alert Circle”?
Alert circles are a defensive mechanism that wild animals, especially elephants, create in order to protect their younger ones, especially calves, from potential threats such as natural calamities.
The adult elephants stayed in the circumference of the circle to observe the potential threats, and the younger ones remained inside the circle, at the centre.
Kristi revealed that the elephants were in the defensive formation for a little less than four minutes. These elephants exhibit similar behaviour again and again during another earthquake and aftershock for a brief amount of time.
Such incidents show the people that wild animals also care for their families and children, and people in the modern world perhaps started to forget their duties to their families.
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