Elena Račevska

Lecturer/researcher

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Dr. sc. Elena Račevska is a dedicated psychologist and conservation scientist with a diverse academic background and a passion for understanding the intricate relationships between humans and animals. She holds a PhD in Primatology from Oxford Brookes University, where her research focused on the role of lemurs in forest regeneration and local livelihoods in Southeast Madagascar. Elena also earned an MSc in Primate Conservation with distinction, exploring human-animal interactions with zoo-housed gorillas. With a solid foundation in psychology, including an MA and BA from the University of Zagreb, her research interests encompass ethnozoology, wildlife conservation, evolutionary psychology, and the psychology of music. Dr Račevska has published extensively in leading journals and has presented her work at numerous conferences, contributing valuable insights into both psychology and primate conservation and ecology. She possesses extensive experience in writing research articles and reports, preparing and delivering scientific talks for different audiences and in different languages, as well as lectures and seminars for university students of various study subjects. In addition to her research career, Elena is an experienced educator, having taught undergraduate courses on primate conservation, human-animal interface and research methods. Since 2021, she has also worked as a zookeeper and animal trainer at Zagreb Zoo, where she applies her expertise in animal husbandry, training, welfare and conservation education. She also regularly educates and supervises domestic and international students and interns on these topics. Elena has a wealth of fieldwork and research experience. Her PhD fieldwork in Madagascar involved extensive behavioral observations of collared brown lemurs, telemetry, GPS mapping, and community interviews, alongside invertebrate surveys and phenology sampling. She has also conducted field research on the Javan slow loris, as well as investigated human-animal bonds in Indonesian wildlife sanctuar