Curriculum Vitae Jasper Eikelboom

Jasper Eikelboom

Profile to top

Full name: dr. Jasper Arend Jan Eikelboom MSc MA
First name: Jasper
Nationality: Dutch
E-mail: jasper.eikelboom@wur.nl
ORCID: 0000-0002-5107-4427
Google Scholar: sO2ZvSwAAAAJ
LinkedIn: jaspereikelboom
ResearchGate: Jasper_Eikelboom

Expertise to top

  • quantitative ecology
  • wildlife conservation
  • data science
  • animal behaviour
  • mathematical modelling

Experience to top

October 2024 - Present

Senior lecturer & researcher at the Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University, Netherlands. Lecturing, thesis supervision and research on the intersection of spatiotemporal analyses, ecology and machine learning.

March 2021 - September 2024

Postdoctoral researcher at the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Group, Wageningen University, Netherlands. Research and grant writing about the thermo- and movement ecology of tropical ungulates, focusing on mathematical simulations and artificial intelligence. Initiator and leader of an international movement ecology research collaboration about the behavioural thermoregulation of savanna herbivores in the face of climate change.

January 2017 - March 2021

PhD candidate at the Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Netherlands. Research on animal movement with the goal to infer the animals' internal state and surrounding environmental conditions. A hypotheses-free and data-driven study aimed at a deep and fundamental understanding of animal movement, but with an immediate goal to automatically detect poachers in a South African nature reserve with sensor-tagged ungulates connected through an IoT LoRa-network.

August 2015 - July 2016

2nd degree Mathematics and Arithmetic teacher at the first three years of pre-university secondary education at Ostrea Lyceum in Goes, Netherlands.

August 2013 - July 2015

1st degree Geography teacher at the final three years of pre-university secondary education & 2nd degree Mathematics teacher and mentor at the first three years of pre-university secondary education at CSG Reggesteyn in Nijverdal, Netherlands.

November 2012 - December 2013

Intern ethologist at AAP, Sanctuary for Exotic Animals in Almere, Netherlands. Research on the effect of interventions on abnormal behaviour in ex-laboratory chimpanzees.

November 2011 - October 2012

Intern biodiversity researcher at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency in Bilthoven, Netherlands and Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development in Utrecht, Netherlands. Statistical literature research about the indirect effects of infrastructure on biodiversity by performing a systematic review and meta-analyses.

May 2010 - June 2012

Mathematics test author at Cito in Arnhem, Netherlands. Mathematical questions for Harvard University (USA) grade 7 and 8 & the secondary education VAS-tests.

September 2011 - November 2011

Tutor and homework coach at Studiekring in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Pre-university secondary education in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geography & homework coach for multiple students at the same time.

February 2011 - July 2011

2nd degree Geography teacher at the first year of pre-university secondary education at Vechtdal College in Hardenberg, Netherlands.

February 2010 - January 2011

Intern 2nd degree Geography teacher at the three first years of pre-university secondary education at Vechtdal College in Hardenberg, Netherlands.

Education to top

2017 - 2021

PhD: Quantitative Ecology, Wageningen University. Specialized in movement ecology and artificial intelligence, dissertation on sentinel animals for rhino poaching (promotores: prof. dr. Herbert Prins, prof. dr. Frank van Langevelde, prof. dr. Arjen Doelman & dr. Henjo de Knegt).

2014 - 2015

MA(Ed): Geography Education, Utrecht University. Educational Master for 1st degree Geography teacher in pre-university secondary education.

2011 - 2013

MSc: Environmental Biology, Utrecht University. Specialized in Conservation Biology (Ecology and Natural Resource Management & Behavioural Ecology program), thesis on Overpopulation (supervisors: prof. ir. Klaas van Egmond & dr. Marijke van Kuijk).

2008 - 2011

BSc: Earth Sciences, Utrecht University. Specialized in Climatology and Biogeology (bèta-plus-Biology program), thesis in Paleontology (supervisor: prof. dr. Jelle Reumer).

2010 - 2011

BSc(Ed): Geography Education, Utrecht University. Educational Minor for 2nd degree Geography teacher in pre-university secondary education.

Publications to top

  1. Eikelboom J.A.J.*, Wenting E.*, Siepel H., Broekhuis F. & Van Langevelde F. (2024). Influence of human hunting strategies and large carnivore presence on population dynamics of European facultative scavengers. Ecology and Evolution 14: e70424.
  2. Nuijten R.J.M.*, Nguyen T.*, Eikelboom J.A.J.* & Drori O.* (2024). Legal rhino horn trade: A thorny proposition. Science 386(6718): 157-158.
  3. Linssen H., De Knegt H.J. & Eikelboom J.A.J. (2024). Unveiling the roles of temporal periodicity, the spatial environment and behavioural modes in terrestrial animal movement. Movement Ecology 12: 57.
  4. Eikelboom J.A.J. & Prins H.H.T. (2024). Poaching pressure on African rhinos is still at an all-time high. Science Advances 10(25): eadl1482.
  5. Eikelboom J.A.J., Doelman A., Van Langevelde F. & De Knegt H.J. (2024). Animal group size variation in a minimal attraction-repulsion agent-based model. bioRxiv preprint: 2024.03.20.585938.
  6. Tucker M.A. et al. (2023). Behavioral responses of terrestrial mammals to COVID-19 lockdowns. Science 380(6649): 1059-1064.
  7. Ripple W.J., Wolf C., Newsome T.M., Gregg J.W., Lenton T.M., Palomo I., Eikelboom J.A.J., Law B.E., Huq S., Duffy P.B. & Rockström J. (2021). World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021. BioScience 71(9): 894-898.
  8. Eikelboom J.A.J. (2021). Sentinel animals: Enriching artificial intelligence with wildlife ecology to guard rhinos. PhD thesis, Wageningen University.
  9. Eikelboom J.A.J.*, De Knegt H.J.*, Van Langevelde F., Spruyt W.F. & Prins H.H.T. (2021). Timely poacher detection and localization using sentinel animal movement. Scientific Reports 11: 4596.
  10. Eikelboom J.A.J., De Knegt H.J., Klaver M., Van Langevelde F., Van der Wal T. & Prins H.H.T. (2020). Inferring an animal's environment through biologging: quantifying the environmental influence on animal movement. Movement Ecology 8: 40.
  11. Eikelboom J.A.J., Nuijten R.J.M., Wang Y.X.G., Schroder B., Heitkönig I.M.A., Mooij W.M., Van Langevelde F. & Prins H.H.T. (2020). Will legal international rhino horn trade save wild rhino populations? Global Ecology and Conservation 23: e01145.
  12. Xu Y., Van der Jeugd H., Si Y., Prins H.H.T., Fouchier R.A.M., Guillemain M., Caizergues A., Li Z., Eikelboom J.A.J., Xu C., Thorup K., Von Rönn J., Gong P. & De Boer W.F. (2020). Range shifts of migratory hosts facilitate avian influenza panzootics via crossroads of flyways. PhD thesis: chapter 6.
  13. Li W., Funk M., Eikelboom J.A.J. & Brombacher A. (2020). Visual Exploration of Movement Relatedness for Multi-species Ecology Analysis. arXiv preprint: 2001.11163.
  14. Eikelboom J.A.J., Wind J., Van de Ven E., Kenana L.M., Schroder B., De Knegt H.J., Van Langevelde F. & Prins H.H.T. (2019). Improving the precision and accuracy of animal population estimates with aerial image object detection. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 10(11): 1875-1887.
  15. Benítez-López A., Alkemade R., Schipper A.M., Ingram D.J., Verweij P.A., Eikelboom J.A.J. & Huijbregts M.A.J. (2017). The impact of hunting on tropical mammal and bird populations. Science 356(6334): 180-183.
  16. Eikelboom J.A.J. (2014). An essay on the ecological and socio-economic effects of the current and future global human population size. MSc thesis, Utrecht University.

Media to top

Supervision to top

  • Khodier, M. (2019). Preventing Rhino Poaching in South Africa: Experimental Data Science Project. PDEng thesis, Jheronimus Academy of Data Science.

  • Kuijpers, T. (2024). Developing an Equus Species Behaviour Recognition system with Accelerometers and Machine Learning. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Van den Brink, D. (2023). Allometric relations between movement metrics and body size within the Equus genus. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Needle, M. (2022). The effect of roads and traffic on African savanna elephants in a fenced reserve. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Fernandes, M. (2021). Sound the Alarm: Using animal movement to detect poachers. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Linssen, H. (2020). Modelling fine-scale movement of large ungulates in relation to environmental heterogeneity using hidden Markov models. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Roelofs, S. (2019). Decision-making in barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Wegman, D. (2019). Landscape effects on vigilance in blue wildebeest and Burchell's zebra. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Van de Ven, E. (2018). Animal Detection in Aerial Imagery Using Deep Learning. MSc thesis, Jheronimus Academy of Data Science.
  • Testroote, E. (2018). Vigilance and flight behaviour in herds of three different ungulate species: zebra, wildebeest and impala. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.
  • Klaver, M. (2018). Classification of cow behaviour with GPS and accelerometer sensors using support vector machines. MSc thesis, Wageningen University.

  • Gutschke, Z. (2024). Kleine Marterachtigen in Friesland: Habitatonderzoek op Basis van Cameravallen. MSc internship, Wageningen University.

Projects to top

2021 - 2022

Invited interviewee and participant in targeted expert survey by the European Union to evaluate the EU Action Plan Against Wildlife Trafficking (WAP).

2013 - 2015

Board member, Facebook administrator and app developer for Overpopulation Awareness, the Netherlands. The goal of the foundation is to convince the Dutch citizen of the fact that overpopulation is the main cause of serious problems and should therefore be handled with priority.

Awards to top

Top downloaded 4TU


Sigma Xi associate member


Top 100 Scientific Reports