I am Assistant Professor in Animal–Environment Interactions at the Department for Theoretical and Computational Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam. My research develops quantitative approaches to understand how animals move, survive and reproduce in changing environments, and how ecological information can support conservation and monitoring.

My work combines movement ecology, conservation demography and statistical modelling. A recurring theme is that important ecological states are often hidden or only partly observed: behavioural modes, reproductive status, survival, site use, exposure to pressures, vulnerability and the life-history stages that limit population growth. I use animal tracking, long-term individual-based data and demographic models to infer these processes and connect them to environmental change and conservation questions.

Research interests

My current research focuses on four connected areas:

- Conservation demography and annual-cycle limitation: estimating survival, recruitment, reproductive status and demographic bottlenecks in migratory bird populations.
- Movement ecology and behavioural inference: using GPS, accelerometer and other biologging data to infer movement decisions, behavioural states, resource use and exposure to environmental conditions.
- Animal-borne monitoring and sentinel indicators: developing ways to use animal-borne data as ecological indicators of environmental pressures, behavioural change and vulnerability.
- Ecological inference for conservation: connecting demographic and movement models to management-relevant questions, monitoring priorities and uncertainty-aware conservation planning.

Current projects

My current projects include spatially explicit integrated population models for black-tailed godwit conservation within Grutto Kuiken Landschap; animal-borne sentinel indicators and dashboard development within the Waakvogels programme; annual-cycle demographic modelling of brent geese and bar-tailed godwits; ecological modelling of bird distributions and vector-borne disease risk within the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Center; and movement analysis of seabird behaviour in relation to environmental and anthropogenic pressures in the North Sea.

I also work with colleagues at IBED on machine-learning approaches for behaviour annotation and discovery of new behavioural states from animal-borne accelerometer data.

Collaboration and student projects

I am interested in collaborations with researchers, conservation organisations, public bodies and monitoring programmes working on questions where animal movement, demographic data or ecological uncertainty matter for conservation and environmental monitoring. Relevant topics include population limitation, movement-based indicators, tracking-data infrastructure, biodiversity monitoring, intervention evaluation and the interpretation of animal-borne sensor data.

Students interested in MSc projects are welcome to contact me, especially if they are interested in comutational ecology, movement data, conservation demography, animal-borne monitoring, remote sensing or ecological modelling.

Links

More information about current research themes, people, projects, software and collaboration opportunities is available on the group website:
https://eldarrak.github.io/

My Google Scholar profile

Positions available within the group apear on My LinkedIn page and on BlueSky.