Career
Wahlberg started studying chemistry at the University of Uppsala in 1829, and later forestry, agronomy and natural science, graduating from the Swedish Forestry Institute in 1834. In 1832 he joined Professor Carl Henrik Boheman, a famous entomologist, on a collecting trip to Norway. In 1833 and 1834 he travelled in Sweden and Germany on forestry research projects.
He joined the Office of Land Survey and was appointed an engineer in 1836, becoming an instructor at the Swedish Land Survey College.
He was exploring the Okavango area when he was killed, along the Thamalakane river about 10 km northwest of Maun in today´s Botswana, by a wounded elephant. He is commemorated in Wahlberg"s eagle Aquila wahlbergi (Sundevall 1851), Wahlberg"s honeyguide Prodotiscus regulus (Sundevall 1850), Wahlberg"s cormorant Phalacrocorax neglectus, Wahlberg"s epauletted fruit bat Epomophorus wahlbergi, the bush squeaker Arthroleptis wahlbergii Smith, 1849 (a frog), and a tree Entada wahlbergi.