iStockphoto / EmJcox
This week, Southern California was hit with a 5.2 magnitude earthquake and the San Diego Zoo elephants instinctively formed a ‘protective circle’ or ‘alert circle’ around the younger elephants in the herd to protect them from any potential danger. As far as animal intelligence goes, elephants are considered to be amongst the most intelligent animal species on earth and are well known for having incredible instincts which is evident to anyone seeing this clip.
These African elephants (larger than Asian elephants) at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have gone viral after footage of the alert circle hit social media. And how can you not be moved by this clip with these very basic protective instincts, the herd’s innate drive to protect the most vulnerable among it, on full display?
Check it out:
This herd of San Diego Zoo elephants consists of 3 adults (Ndlula, Umngani, Khosi) and two youngsters (Zuli and Mkhaya). The older/adult elephants immediately got into formation to protect Zuli and Mkhaya as the 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit. Their protective formation/behavior lasted for around 4 minutes before returning to normal once these elephants were able to determine there was no longer a perceived threat. Truly incredible stuff.
I’m feeling particularly in tune with elephants right now as last week I was fortunate enough to visit an elephant sanctuary that rescues elephants from the entertainment industry and allows them to live the rest of their lives out on a massive ranch here in Florida and I was given the opportunity to feed one of the elephants (which used to live on Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch!!) and observe it up close for a few hours. All of they money they take in gets split between feeding/caring for the elephants and money sent to Africa to combat poaching.
In the United States, elephants have to (by law) receive 1 bath per day, something they would get naturally in the wild. So we were able to go there and give that bath which was a pretty amazing experience and unlike anything I’ve done before:
Just two dudes bathing an elephant pic.twitter.com/jbyP6T9MT4
— Cass Anderson (@casspa) April 12, 2025
Close-minded people love to paint anywhere with an elephant as a ‘zoo’ but this was anything but that. It’s genuinely a sanctuary designed to give these elephants the best quality of life after rescuing them from the entertainment industry. If you are in Florida like me then the Myakka Elephant Ranch is definitely worth checking out.
I hate to anthropomorphize elephants in general or the San Diego Zoo elephants but they really are brilliant creatures. They have their quirks, sure. They don’t like it when people run and they primarily only trumpet when there is a perceived threat in the area but we all have our quirks.
Content shared from brobible.com.