What should I use reflexive pronoun (themselves) or personal object pronoun(them)?

[phamthanhly19]

Kindly help me to answer all my confusions with this below sentence:
1.'' They worked together to protect them from dangerous animals and other enemies''
Here is my question:
- In this sentence, Can I use the reflexive pronoun themselves instead of them? or Can I use both?

Thank you so much!!Hope to receive more explanations from all of you.

[Mehrgan]

***not a teacher***
"They worked together to protect them from dangerous animals and other enemies''
In this sentence, it sounds to me, there are two groups of people with the first trying to protect the other. However, by replacing 'them' with 'themselves', you would suggest there's only one group trying to protect themselves and no other. You can get better answers if you're patient enough!

[Tdol]

I agree with Mehrghan- they're both possible, but the meaning changes, so use the one that reflects the number of groups.