Bending or kneeling down and tusking the ground and, often, uplifting clods of soil and vegetation. When elephants engage in Mud-Wallowing they often Tusk-Ground. This is particularly true of Mud-Wallowing musth males who will engage in an exaggerated form of Tusk-Ground along with other components of a musth male display. In an Aggressive context Tusk-Ground is seen in the manoeuvring between two males during an Escalated-Contest, apparently as a demonstration of ‘look what I will do with you’.
Pascal is in full musth. He is standing in a water hole Listening. He begins to move toward the edge and we hear a Musth-Rumble and he begins to Ear-Wave. A plane is still passing overhead. He stops at the edge of the water hole to Tusk-Ground. There is another musth male in the vicinity but they have not yet met. (Amboseli, Kenya)
