[Notable Bulgarian Zoologists. 1997. Golemansky, V., Bozhkov, D., Academic Press, "Prof. Marin Drinov". Sofia, Bulgaria.] in Bulgarian
Prof. K. Touleshkov is one of the most prominent Bulgarian entomologists. He contributed a lot in the enriching of the entomological collections in the Royal Museum of Natural History (now National Museum of Natural History) and developed wide scientific and popular activities as a director of the Zoological garden in Sofia. He is author of numerous of popular science films and books and worked actively in the natural protection in Bulgaria.
Born in the town of Kaynardzha, NE Bulgaria on 24 September. He studied natural history in the Sofia University and graduated in 1926. In the period 1927-1930 Touleshkov worked in the Entomological Station in Sofia. Next ten years he worked on the Lepidoptera fauna in the Royal Institutes of Natural History and published the monograph “The horizontal distribution of the butterflies (Lepidoptera) in Bulgaria”.
In 1941 Touleshkov was mobilized in Skopie where he had to guard the Zoological museum from plundering. He became curator of this museum and worked there until 1944 when he was appointed as curator in the entomological section of the Royal Museum of Natural History. For one year - 1947 he was director of the museum. In the end of the 1948 Touleshkov became a director of the Zoological garden in Sofia. He repaired the garden, partly destroyed after the WWII, opened new sectors in the garden - Aquarium and two vivariums and developed intense scientific work. He published the book “The butterflies in Bulgaria” in 1958.
During his work in the Zoological garden he started to study the lice on domestic and wild birds and mammals. In 1959 Touleshkov was appointed as director of the section “Entomology” in the Zoological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and worked on this position until his retirement on a pension in 1969.
[translated, 2005 by Mihaela N. Ilieva]
