Elephants at San Diego safari park huddle to protect calves during earthquake

SAN DIEGO (AP) — As the ground shook from a 5.2-magnitude earthquake, a herd of elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park sprung into action to protect their young.

A video shot of their enclosure at the park Monday morning shows the five African elephants standing around in the morning sun before the camera shakes and they run in different directions. Then the older elephants — Ndlula, Umngani, Khosi — scramble to encircle and shield the two 7-year-old calves Zuli and Mkhaya from any possible threats.

They remain huddled for several minutes as the older elephants look outward, appearing to be at the ready, their ears spread and flapping — even after the rocking stopped.

The quake was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles, 120 miles (193 kilometers) away. It sent boulders tumbling onto rural roads in San Diego County and knocked items off store shelves in the tiny mountain town of Julian near the epicenter but caused no injuries or major damage.

But it spooked the elephants.

Once in a circle, “they sort of freeze as they gather information about where the danger is,” said Mindy Albright, a curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals that have the ability to feel sound through their feet. When they perceive a threat, they often bunch together in an “alert circle," typically with the young clustered in the center and the adults facing outward to defend the group.

In the video, one of the calves can be seen running for refuge between the adults, a group of matriarchs that all helped raise her. But the other calf, the only male, remained on the edge of the circle, wanting to show his courage and independence, Albright said. Meanwhile, the female elephant, Khosi, a teenager who helped raise him along with his biological mother, Ndlula, repeatedly tapped him on the back with her trunk, and even on the face, as if patting him to say, “Things are OK,” and “Stay back in the circle.”

Zuli is still a baby and is coddled as such, Albright said, but his role will change over the next few years as he becomes a bull and moves to join a bachelor group while the female elephants stay with the family unit for their entire lives.

“It's so great to see them doing the thing we all should be doing — that any parent does, which is protect their children,” Albright said.

About an hour later when an aftershock hit, they briefly huddled again and then dispersed once they determined everyone was safe.