IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin
©IUCN/SCC Otter Specialist Group
Volume 40 Issue 4 (October 2023)
Obituary: Remembering Aleš Toman
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On September 8th of this year, RNDr. Aleš Toman (1956) left us prematurely. His last trip to his beloved Africa was fatal.
Aleš studied Systematic Biology and Ecology at the Faculty of Science in Olomouc, but he lived most of his life in the Czech Highlands. He started his professional career at the Museum of Highlands in Jihlava, where he worked as a zoologist. An important period of his life was his work at the Otter and Fauna Protection Station in Pavlov near Ledeč nad Sázavou, which was established from the beginning of the 1990s as part of the then Czech Institute of Nature Conservation - later the AOPK ČR. After many years as head of the station, he moved to the Jihlava Zoo and then to the Plzeň Zoo, and then as the head of the municipal shelter for abandoned animals in Jihlava. Since 1992, his great love was Africa, where he travelled several times a year as a guide on natural history expeditions.
Our professional cooperation started in the early 1990s. The youthful enthusiasm combined with the freedom provided by the velvet revolution in CZ 1989 was an ideal starting point. At that time a nice cooperation started with the Dutch Otterstation Foundation. We embarked on the rescue of the then critically endangered otter together with full commitment. Pavlov soon became not only an Otterstation on a national level. We became active members of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, and we established intensive cooperation with otter conservation organisations in Europe and around the world. In 1993, a Dutch sponsor enabled us to participate in the VIth International Otter Colloquium in South Africa, and many other joint trips followed (Scotland, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, the Danube Delta and many others).
The many weeks spent in our countryside, in Třeboň region during otter trapping for telemetry research, nights during telemetry in the Jeseníky Mountains, will never fade from our memory. Our common otter work was gradually extended to other species - the peregrine and saker falcon, the European mink in the Danube Delta, black Grouse, woodpeckers and migratory bird species in the Austrian Alps and the endangered owls, which gradually brought other joint activities.
It remained so even after Aleš's departure to the Jihlava Zoo and actually until the last days. On the seventh of September 2023, our film about beaver wetlands was premiered at the Jihlava Zoo, for which Aleš provided beautiful footage of kingfishers. He was supposed to be at the premiere. But Ales didn't come. Early the next morning it became clear that he was losing his battle with malaria at the time of the premiere.
Aleš had his share of difficult moments in life, but he always managed to overcome them with his eternal smile and optimism and his ability to enjoy life to the fullest. His undying vigour influenced a wide range of people interested in nature until his last days, whether at home or during his many travels in Africa. He was also a great embassador of Czech humor and culture. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.
Václav Hlaváč, Addy de Jongh and Andreas Kranz