Approximately 5,000 elephants are kept as captive animals in the Union of Myanmar. The majority of these are owned by the Myanmar Timber Enterprise and are used to extract timber from the teak forests once felled. Elephant registration books have been kept for many generations, noting details of these working elephants such as age, sex, area of origin, condition, temperament, dam/sire elephants etc.

This vast database has never before been analysed. Dr Mar has spent many years compiling the information, and seeks to use it to study population fluctuations, especially the links between births, deaths, immigration and emigration. She will also analyse patterns of veterinary care and husbandry of captive working elephants and from these draw conclusions for the management of elephants in captivity and in the wild.