He was attached to the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris as a collector naturalist.
He also collected mammals, reptiles, molluscs, insects and other invertebrates as well as botanical material.
He returned to France in December 1842, and between 1843 and 1846 published a series of papers on the flora and fauna of Colombia.
[1] The shining-green hummingbird (Lepidopyga goudoti ) was named in his honour by Jules Bourcier, and René-Primevère Lesson named the sickle-winged guan (Chamaepetes goudotii ) for him.
A species of snake, Leptotyphlops goudotii, was named in his honour by André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron.