African bush elephants inhabiting the undeveloped Kalahari Sands region of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe are subject to episodic mortality during droughts.We monitored the drought-related mortality of elephants in Hwange National Park over the course of an extended drought between 1993 and 1995. The drought-related mortality of elephants was higher during 1994 than 1995, despite signi¢cantly higher rainfall in 1994 than 1995. We found signi¢cant di¡erences in the age-speci¢c mortality of elephants during 1994 and 1995. The cumulative mortality pro¢le from this study di¡ered signi¢cantly from previous die-o¡s at this site, with a higher mortalityamong adult age classes than that reported from earlier studies in Hwange National Park. The e¡ective duration of the rainy season, not total annual precipitation, appears to be the best predictor for the potential severity of drought mortality among elephants in the Kalahari Sands habitats of Hwange National Park.