This is happening6:01Elephants form a protection ring around the toddler during an earthquake
Mkhaya, a seven -year -old elephant in San Diego Zoo Safari Park, can relax calmly, knowing that her family has her back.
When on Monday an earthquake with a length of 5.2 on Monday, a herd of Mkhayi did not waste time, creating a protective barrier around it, known as “alarm wheel”.
This phenomenon, captured to the video, has zoo staff, which radiates the sharp instincts of the African elephant herd, effective communication skills and a strong family connection.
“That they would be involved in their environment and receive signals that they get and the answer, respectively, are unusual,” said Mindy Albright, a curator of mammals at Escondido, California This is happening Host Nil Köksal.
“And it is unusual to see that these family ties are so strong that they are immediately meeting to take care of each other.”
When on Monday an earthquake with a length of 5.2 forces hit San Diego, elephants at the ZOO in San Diego Safari Park instinctively circled their young in the so -called “alarm district”.
The herd members were in the feeding housing after eating when the murmurs began.
They immediately stopped what they did and began to look around. Then they gathered in the middle of the housing and stood completely motionless for a while.
“They pull their ears. They listen. They also have the opportunity to feel sound vibrations through the feet that move a few miles,” said Albright.
“So at this point they are really a bit, frozen, trying to collect as much information as possible so that they can decide what our next move is? And this is the survival strategy that all elephants have.”
It is also completely possible, he says that they talked to each other.
“Elephants also have the ability to communicate on a frequency well below our ability to hear so that they can pass this one all the time. We would simply not be able to hear it.”
My brother comes to defend his sister
It did not take them long to achieve a consensus. Three adult women – Ndlula, Umnany and Khosi – quickly surrounded Mkhaya and headed outside, ready to guard her.
The half -brother of Mkhayi, Zula, also only seven years, joined older women, directed outside as part of the barrier.
This prompted Khosi – a teenager who helped to raise Zula along with his biological mother, Ndlula – to repeatedly touch a young man with a trunk.
“Almost as if he checks him,” said Albright. “Maybe I wonder:” Why are you outside the circle and not inside? “
The flocks of elephants consist of adult women, usually matriarch and her relatives and minors of both sexes. When men reach puberty, somewhere aged 10 to 15, they leave their herd and go out in search of partners.
Zula is still a very child, says Albright, but is approaching the age at which they will separate from the group.
“When they went away (from the circle), he was still touching his mother. So he is not fully confident as an adult bull. He is still young,” she said. “But these are only moments to start demonstrating your evolution of maturity in the family group.”
Alarm circles are a completely natural behavior of the elephant, often shown in the wild, says Chase Ladue, protection scientists who work with elephants in the zoo in Oklahoma City.
When there is any perceived threat – unknown noise, approaching people, fighting animals – adult women herds instinctively surround the young.
“Elephants often have close ties together, cooperating to find food and other resources and defend themselves against potential threats,” Ladue said.
He says that the fact that this took place in captivity is a good sign that the object has maintained the natural family unit of the herd.
“These social functions are present even in places such as a zoo where we try to replicate natural social structures and provide elephants of possibilities of expressing natural behaviors,” he said.
The earthquake did not ultimately pose an elephant threat. This caused some slight damage in the mountain city of Julian near the epicenter, but no one was hurt.
Shortly after his face, the herd returned to their feeding. Around an hour later, when the secondary shock hit, they cried briefly, and then dispersed when they determined that everyone was safe.
Albright says they acted exactly as they should see elephants, which was comforting.
“It's just a great example of a strong family bond that flocks of elephants have,” she said.
With files from the Associated Press. Interview with Mindy Albright produced by Mariela Torroba Hennigen.