The effects of elephants (Loxodonta africana) are discussed based on a survey of 3 sets of aerial photographs covering a 20-yr period from 1963. The 70 elephants representing the desert population in 1983 had no known detrimental effect on the desert vegetation. Monitoring the relative age structure of large trees in river courses (recorded species >4 m tall were: Acacia albida, A. erioloba, A. tortilis, and a few Colophospermum mopane and Combretum imberbe) also suggested that for at least the last 20 yr these elephants have had no marked detrimental effect on the large-tree population. It is concluded that the present number of elephants is well below the region's elephant-carrying capacity.