Drought mortality of bush elephants in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

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 significantly higher rainfall in 1994 than 1995. We found significant differences in the age-specific mortality of elephants during 1994 and 1995. The cumulative mortality profile from this study differed significantly from previous die-offs at this site, with a higher mortality among adult age classes than that reported from earlier studies in Hwange National Park. The effective 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.