Friederike Woog

Dr. Friederike Woog is a curator of ornithology at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (SMNS) and has been a Lecturer at the University of Hohenheim’s Institute of Zoology since 2015. Her dual role bridges museum-based research and university-level education in zoology and behavioral ecology.

She earned her MSc in Biology from the University of Hohenheim (1987–1992) with a thesis on Hawaiian Geese, followed by a PhD from the University of Hannover (1994–1999), conducted in collaboration with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust in the UK and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in the USA.

Her research spans biodiversity in tropical rainforests, urban avian ecology, avian malaria and parasitology, and conservation biology. She has led long-term studies on Greylag Geese in urban environments and conducted extensive fieldwork in Madagascar, focusing on endemic bird species, blood parasites, and habitat use. She also investigates introduced species, such as Amazon parrots in Stuttgart and Egyptian Geese in urban settings.

Her recent publications reflect a strong emphasis on parasitology, conservation genetics, and environmental monitoring, often leveraging museum collections and long-term datasets. She collaborates internationally on projects involving contaminant monitoring in apex predators and avian disease ecology.

Teaching and supervision are central to her academic role. She teaches modules on vertebrate biology, scientific bird ringing, behavioral ecology, and evolution. She has supervised over a dozen MSc and BSc theses, primarily from the University of Hohenheim and partner institutions in Madagascar and Germany.

She has contributed to popular science communication through articles, exhibitions, and public lectures, including the traveling exhibition Viva Color – Farben der Natur.