A video in San Diego Zoo Safari Park captured the behavior of five African savanna elephants
As soon as a 5.2-magnitude earthquake began to rumble in Southern California, elephants in the zoo rallied together into a protective huddle. A video capture of an enclosure at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park showed five African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) before, during and after the quake that shook the ground April 14. At first, the elephants were somewhat dispersed in the enclosure, then they ran toward a more open area just as the ground began to rock, forming a circle with the younger animals in the middle. “This video demonstrates the strong social family structure in elephant herds,” a spokesperson from the zoo said in a statement. “The herd, consisting of Ndlula, Umngani, Khosi and youngsters Zuli and Mkhaya, went back to normal after about four minutes, though they did stay close to one another.”
