Expedition Leader Marco Tonoli

Marco organized and headed his first expedition into the Drakensberg Mountains at the age of 13 for a group of close friends, which ultimately led to an unquestionable love for exploring and sharing the natural world. As soon as he was of legal age, he was on the first plane out of his home country, South Africa, to discover the cultures and environments of the Middle East, Far East and Europe. This love of the world’s wilderness areas and the people within it, led him to pursue what turned out to be an adventurous 16-year career as a naturalist guide throughout Southern and East Africa. Basing himself within various national parks and wilderness areas throughout the sub-continent allowed him the opportunity to discover, study and share the huge diversity of ecosystems throughout the region.

His love of ethology and species adaptations and their survival in harsh and extreme habitats took him to the Kalahari Desert, where he led and trained a team of specialist guides, as well as lived and worked closely with the region’s best Botswana trackers. In due course he developed a passion for the art and science of tracking and spent four years conducting desert Black Rhino walking safaris.

To pursue another dream, Marco took a small break from guiding to study wildlife filmmaking and photography in the pursuit of documenting the natural world, which has allowed him opportunities to work on productions by National Geographic and Discovery Channel, as well as having images appear in notable natural history publications.