Koepcke studied at the
University of Kiel,
Germany, earning a
doctorate in
Natural Sciences in 1947. He then traveled to
Peru where he started work at the Javier Prado
Museum of Natural History in
Lima, an institution affiliated with the
National University of San Marcos. Along with his wife Maria, whom he met at the
University of Kiel and later married in Peru, he spent much of his life studying the Peruvian and
South American
fauna. He co-authored with Maria many scientific publications, mostly
ornithological. His greatest individual academic accomplishment was the publication (in German) of the 1,684 page two volume opus entitled
Die Lebensformen: Grundlagen zu einer universell gültigen biologischen Theorie (Life Forms: The basis for a universally valid biological theory), in 1971 and 1973. According to François Vuilleumier, curator of the Department of Ornithology,
American Museum of Natural History in
New York City:The number of topics covered in this monumental work (volume 1, pages 1–789; volume 2, pages 790–1,684) is simply astonishing, and includes the concept of adaptation, death of individuals and of species, homology, systematics, ecological specialization, teleology, convergences, social signalization, mimicry, sexuality, mating systems, and many others. Richly illustrated, this work draws its empirical examples from many forms of life, where birds, and Peruvian or South American birds especially, figure prominently. On 24 December 1971, Koepcke's wife Maria was killed in the crash of
LANSA Flight 508 in the Peruvian
Amazon rainforest. Their daughter, Juliane, who was on the flight with her mother, was the sole survivor of the crash, having fallen from still strapped into her seat. Injured, Juliane Koepcke survived 11 days hiking without food until she was rescued. ==Return to Germany==