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.

Article

• Prado, Natalia A., Armstrong, Ellie E., Brown, Janine L., Goldenberg, Shifra Z., Leimgruber, Peter, Pearson, Virginia R., Maldonado, Jesús E., and Campana, Michael G. 2023. "Genomic resources for Asian (Elephas maximus) and African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) conservation and health research." Journal of Heredity, 114, (5) 529–538. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad034. 2023
• Elephant behavior toward the dead: A review and insights from field observations.  Primates; Journal of Primatology.  61:119-128. 2020
• Strongylid infection varies with age, sex, movement and social factors in wild African elephants.  Parasitology.  147:348-359. 2020
• Goldenberg, Shifra Z., Owen, Megan A., Brown, Janine L., Wittemyer, George, Oo, Zaw Min, and Leimgruber, Peter. 2019. "Increasing conservation translocation success by building social functionality in released populations." Global Ecology and Conservation, 18 e00604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00604. 2019
• Inter-generational change in African elephant range use is associated with poaching risk, primary productivity and adult mortality.  Proceedings of the Royal Society (London) B.  285:Article 20180286. 2018
• Orphaning and natal group dispersal are associated with social costs in female elephants.  Animal Behaviour.  143:1-8. 2018
• Challenges of using behavior to monitor anthropogenic impacts on wildlife: a case study on illegal killing of African elephants.  Animal Conservation.  20:215-224. 2017
• Orphaned female elephant social bonds reflect lack of access to mature adults.  Scientific Reports.  7:Article 14408. 2017
• Evidence of strong spatial segregation between elephant subpopulations in the contiguous Laikipia-Samburu ecosystem in Kenya.  African Journal of Ecology.  54:261-264. 2016
• Research Priorities from Animal Behaviour for Maximising Conservation Progress.  Trends in Ecology & Evolution.  31:953-964. 2016
• Vertical Transmission of Social Roles Drives Resilience to Poaching in Elephant Networks.  Current Biology.  26:75-79. 2016
• Controlling for behavioural state reveals social dynamics among male African elephants, Loxodonta africana.  Animal Behaviour.  95:111-119. 2014
• Diatom response to the whole lake manipulation of a eutrophic urban impoundment.  Hydrobiologia.  691:71-80. 2012