SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A recent 5.2 magnitude earthquake in San Diego, Calif., has left us with fascinating footage of elephant behavior captured at the San Diego Zoo. In it, the elephants are making something called an “alert circle.”
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
KCBS Radio anchor Holly Quan spoke with Kristi Burtis, vice president of wildlife care at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, about the now-viral video this week.
“It really is a great opportunity for all of you to see something that we see every day with natural behavior from our elephant herd,” Burtis said. Typically, the behavior witnessed in the video is something that elephants do in the wild, in response to a threat, she noted.
Burtis was outside when the quake hit, and she remembers hearing a loud boom. Zoo staffers quickly began checking on the animals, both in person and via video monitor. As they looked over the footage, they noticed the elephants acting in an unusual way.
“They got into this, you’ll see in the video, they all kind of start to come towards one another,” Burtis explained. “They’re in a line facing sort of where that sound was coming from. And then they immediately go into this alert circle, so they have full 360-degree view to try and ascertain where this potential threat is coming from.”
This video also revealed new things about the individual elephants living at the Zoo, Burtis added. In an “alert circle” more mature elephants crowd younger elephants into the center of the circle for more protection. That also happened at the zoo – for the most part.
“Mkhaya is moved into the center of the circle And Zuli, who is just six months apart from Mkhaya, is a male and he is definitely changing,” Burtis said. “And we see that in his behavior. He gets in the outer circle with the adults. Like, ‘I’m here too. I can look at where this threat’s coming from.’ But we then see his sister, Khosi, reach her trunk around to check on him – check on him and kind of moves him back.”
She said the elephants stayed in their formation for little under four minutes. They actually exhibited the behavior again later during another earthquake aftershock, but only for a brief amount of time.
“It was a really great opportunity to see them,” Burtis told Quan. “You know, the saying, ‘we’re stronger together?’ the elephants certainly demonstrated that in the video that you all saw.”
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram