Tolga Aktas
The Biologist Working to Protect the Natural Environment
Portrait of Tolga Aktas, a conservation biologist and environmental photojournalist from the UK.
Tolga Aktas—a conservation biologist based in the United Kingdom—is part Jamaican part Turkish Cypriot. His upbringing led to a love of nature that he pursued as a career later in life. Tolga has since traveled to Africa, Borneo, and distant regions of the United Kingdom to conduct field research and volunteer for various wildlife conversation projects.
Portrait of Tolga Aktas with his bird of choice, the Golden Eagle. Illustrated by Daniel J. Middleton.
Tolga Aktas was born in London, United Kingdom, on January 19, 1992, the fourth of five children. His mother is from Clarendon, a parish in Jamaica, and his father is from Cihangir, a village in Northern Cyprus. Tolga grew up in South London in the United Kingdom, where he spent much of his childhood, but he traveled to Jamaica and North Cyprus often. Tolga was introduced to various ecosystems and habitats while visiting the two countries. Though he was drawn to nature as a child and grew up surrounded by animals, he did not realize that one could have a career in wildlife. Nature documentaries presented by Steve Irwin and Sir David Attenborough gave him a new outlook.
Tolga did not pursue wildlife studies in his youth due to a lack of resources, and because he saw no wildlife presenters or conservationists who bore his skin color, he considered the career a lost cause. His outlook grew bleak, and his grades suffered as a result. Tolga left secondary school and found work in an apprenticeship as an electrical engineer, but he had no passion for that field.
For close to a year, Tolga often skipped lunch with the other engineers to visit a pet store, where he felt at home as he stroked various animals. He recalled his love of nature and began to reconsider his career choice. During an interview on The Outdoors Fix podcast, Tolga said:
Then after some more time thinking about it I just stormed up to the top floor of our engineering office and just said to the manager, ‘I’m gonna leave.’ ”
Tolga Aktas adjusts a radio tracking collar on an African wild dog. Adapted from a photo courtesy of Wildlife ACT.
And he did leave. Tolga started doing extensive research and launched into volunteer work, which started at Surrey Docks Farm on the Thames in London, 15 minutes walking distance from his house. He was finally getting work experience in his field of choice. Tolga volunteered for nearly two years, and then he transitioned to Battersea Park Children’s Zoo, where his education in conservation began. Tolga also worked at a monkey sanctuary in Cornwall, UK, a wolf sanctuary in Reading, UK, and a turtle conservation and research project in Northern Cyprus near his family’s village home.
Tolga earned an advanced diploma in animal management from Capel Manor College and followed that up with a bachelor’s in animal biology from the University of Gloucestershire. While pursuing his degree, Tolga traveled to KwaZulu-Natal in Africa to work with endangered species in collaboration with Wildlife ACT, a non-profit trust. His field research on wild dogs and lions was foundational to his thesis. Tolga loves spending time in natural settings looking for birds and other wildlife. He frequents places like Epping Forest—the ancient woodland that straddles the border between London and Essex—and Highnam Woods near his current home in Gloucestershire.
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This article appears in 12 Modern Black Birders.
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Brianna Amingwa is an avid birder and the education supervisor at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, the first urban wildlife refuge in the U.S.