Shifra Goldenberg is an ecologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Conservation Ecology Center and a research fellow studying population sustainability at the San Diego Zoo Global Institute for Conservation Research. As a behavioral ecologist, Goldenberg works to leverage animal behavior to address questions that simultaneously advance basic understanding of animal societies and conservation objectives, primarily conducting research in the field.

Goldenberg works with SCBI scientists and others to incorporate measurement of inter-individual behavioral differences into conservation applications. She focuses effort on developing and implementing research to inform conservation translocations in elephants, which includes understanding elephant social behavior, interactions with humans, and movement on complex landscapes. Her work addresses larger understanding of the ways in which behavior at the scale of the individual elephant can inform processes important for the conservation of populations.