Bak Kham
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) at
Yo Nie in Vietnam

Biography

☨ ♀ Bak Kham

Identification


Description
Species:	Asian elephant (Elephas maximus)
Subspecies:	Elephas maximus indicus
Sex and age:	Female ♀
Origin
Born:	* wild
Birth place:	in Vietnam unspecified location
Death
Dead:	†2025-07-17
Death reason:	trauma: died after slipping on wet terrain and being fatally pierced by a tree stump.
Offspring
Total: 1 babies

1. Born 2019-12-01 (dead † 2019-12-01)	♂ Thong Nang (stillborn)
Locations - owners
Present / last location:	Yo Nie, in Vietnam

Date of arrival

	Yo Nie from Vietnam unspecified location

Record history
History of updates	2021-10-17

Latest document update	2025-08-21 16:16:57
Google map

† Bak Kham is a dead Female ♀ Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), , who died 2025-07-17 at Yo Nie, in Vietnam, . Official death reason described as died after slipping on wet terrain and being fatally pierced by a tree stump..

Offspring

Total: 1 babies

(M) 2019-12-01 -- † 2019-12-01 Thong Nang (stillborn)

Origin

Bak Kham was born wild at Vietnam unspecified location.

Comments / pictures

2019: Female Bak Kham had a stillborn elephant baby,

VN Express – 26.12.2019No calves have survived birth since 1989 in a Central Highlands district where elephants are considered kin and buried among family members. Y Yo Ni, of the M’nong ethnic minority, wades through the mud to reach a cemetery near his home in Bhok Village of Yang Tao Commune, Lak District, Dak Lak Province in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. The 21-year old is visiting Thong Nang, a baby elephant that died earlier this year.

2025: For years, Uong's family had hoped Bak Kham would contribute to Conservation by producing a calf. She only accepted one mate, a 60-year-old bull named Thong Rang.

In 2018, Bak Kham became pregnant, and the family took great care of her. However, the calf suffocated before birth. Still, the family remained hopeful and repeatedly brought her to the forest during mating periods.

Most recently, while attempting to mate her again with Thong Rang, Bak Kham slipped during heavy rain, falling onto a sharp tree stump that caused fatal internal injuries.

The Mahout is unclear why Thong Nang succumbed at birth, though he ascribes the incident to the mother being too old, heavily exploited by tourism, and confined to a small space. Five years ago, Yo Ni married and moved to Yang Tao Commune. Here, his father-in-law had made a living by providing tourist rides on a 40-year-old elephant named Bak Kham. When Bak Kham grew pregnant, she was transferred deeper into the mountain. Protected by nature, Yo Ni cared for her during the next two years. On the morning of December 1, Bak Kham gave birth to a stillborn infant the family was unable to resuscitate, having blown air into its Trunk for nearly 30 minutes. “My father-in-law couldn’t let go of the corpse. He just held it and wailed. Thong Nang weighed 100 kg,” Yo Ni explains. As the M’nong consider elephants kin, often cohabiting beneath the same roof, Thong Nang was interred next to Yo Ni’s family ancestors.

Reference list

References

Koehl, Dan, (2025). Bak Kham, Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) located at Yo Nie in Vietnam. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 8 November 2025 at https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=10611. (archived at the Wayback machine)