When a 5.2-magnitude earthquake shook the U.S. city of San Diego on April 14, a video showing five African elephants huddling together in the middle of their enclosure at San Diego Zoo Safari Park made headlines.
It showed three older female elephants, Ndlula, Umngani and Khosi, moving quickly to protect 7-year-old calves Zuli and Mkhaya.
“When an elephant senses danger, the herds’ instinct is to protect their youngest and the herd as a whole, so adult elephants join together and circle the calves, facing outward to confront any potential predators,” Mindy Albright, curator of mammals at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, told Mongabay by email.
Albright said that, interestingly, male calf Zuli joined the adults in the outer circle while female calf Mkhaya remained inside the circle. “Khosi, who is 18, can be seen reaching her trunk over to touch Zuli — as if, from a human perspective, to check on him. Zuli’s role in the herd will change over time as he grows into an adult bull elephant,” Albright said.
In about four minutes after the earthquake, the herd resumed foraging. During an aftershock, they formed a circle again, but dispersed more quickly this time, possibly learning the rumbles weren’t a threat, Albright said.
Elephant biologist Joyce Poole, scientific director of conservation NGO ElephantVoices, told Mongabay by email the circling behavior is scientifically called “bunching,” where elephants cluster together in a tight defensive circle facing outward.
“In this position they are best able to face a threat — with their more vulnerable backsides (and young) protected in the center and their more formidable side facing outward toward any potential danger,” she said.
Poole noted that in the video, the elephants’ heads were raised high and their ears were spread “to appear larger and also to listen for any sounds associated with the threat.” The gesture of touching one another was a “reassuring behavior.”
The elephants likely bunched during the earthquake because they “have receptors in their feet and the tip of their trunk that are extremely sensitive to vibrations,” Poole said.
She added she’s twice been with elephants during an earthquake and seen similar responses. “In the wild they picked up on the tremors several seconds before I did and ran together to form a bunch or defensive circle in the same way they did at the zoo.”
In general, elephants bunch whenever they feel vulnerable, and the behavior is “very common” in the wild, Poole said. The intense human and media interest in the video could be because captive elephants are usually less animated than wild ones, she added.
“In the wild elephants have plenty to animate them — common events that bring them joy, great excitement, annoyance — and yes, fear. Sadly, captive elephants don’t really get much of a chance to be elephants,” Poole said.
Banner image of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park elephants in Escondido, California, courtesy of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
This story first appeared on Mongabay
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