In African savannas, surface water can become limiting and an understanding of how animals address the trade-offs between different constraints to access this resource is needed. Here, we describe water access by ten African herbivore species in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe, and we explore four possible determinants of the observed behaviours: water abundance, thermoregulation, perceived predation risk and interference competition. On average, herbivores were observed to drink in 80% of visits to a waterhole. The probability of drinking was higher