SummaryEye lens dry‐weights have been determined for 543 African elephants from three populations in East Africa. When plotted against estimated ages based on tooth replacement and wear criteria they indicate growth curves with rapid initial growth in lens weight, succeeded by a phase of rectilinear growth which apparently persists throughout life.Parameters for the regressions of lens dry weight on age have been calculated by sex and locality. Confidence limits are fitted and no significant difference in the growth rates can be demonstrated, except for a sex difference in the values for the α intercept.Variability at age is slightly greater in males than females, but is little greater than i3 indicated by studies on other species using known‐age animals. This is taken to confirm the accuracy of the age criteria adopted and leads to conclusions on their precision.It is suggested that this method might provide an objective check on the accuracy and precision of age estimates in other spe