The low rate of new Acacia erioloba seedling establishment in wildlife areas in northern Botswana may be influenced by seed predation, insufficient rainfall for seed germination and seedling establishment or browsing. Mammal and insect predation on A. erioloba pods, seeds, and seedlings were monitored in three wildlife areas to determine the effects on seed germination and seedling survival during 2 drought years followed by 2 years with average rainfall. Although bruchid beetles infested half of the seeds, removal of unripe pods by chacma baboons Papio cynocephalus and vervet monkeysCercopithecus aethiops was the primary source of seed predation in areas near perennial water sources. The same number of seeds from pods collected under mature A. erioloba trees germinated as seeds from elephant dung when kept in saturated sand; however, seeds from dung began germinating in three days but those from pods did not start germinating until the tenth day. During the drought years, few seedlings emerged and none survived. New seedlings, identified by their cotyledons, emerged in December 1995 after >100 mm rain over several days, but by mid-January, more than half of the seedlings died from dessication. Only 15% of the seedlings remained in June and none survived through the dry season in 1996. Dispersal of more rapidly germinating seeds in elephant dung would be beneficial in sandy semi-arid savannas where sufficient rainfall for seed germination and seedling establishment appears to be rare. These results suggest that while seed predation reduces the number of seeds in the seed bank, inadequate rainfall limits A. erioloba seedling establishment, even during years with average annual rainfall.