Anelastic strain recovery has been studied in SiC whisker-reinforced alumina composites following tensile creep. The magnitude of the recovered strains were similar to 10(-3) with 20 vol% SiC whiskers upon unloading from 74 MPa at 1673 K, while no such behavior was observed with 10 vol% SiC whiskers. A strain recovery mechanism based on Hertzian contact deformation within a percolating whisker (or particle) network is suggested, which appears to be consistent with the experimental observations. Two models (for whiskers and particles) have been developed which seem to predict the magnitude of recoverable strain reasonably well.