Louis Leon Arthur Mowbray (born 19 August 1877 on

St. George's, Bermuda St. George's (formally the Town of St. George or St. George's Town), located on the island and within the parish of the same names (and on the northern side of St. George's Harbour, settled in 1612, is the first permanent English (and later Bri ...

; died 5 June 1952) was a Bermudian naturalist.

Life

Mowbray was the only son of schoolteacher William Mowbray and his wife Mary Ann Brown. His father emigrated from Louisiana to Bermuda Island in 1870. In 1906, he observed a live

Bermuda petrel The Bermuda petrel (''Pterodroma cahow'') is a gadfly petrel. Commonly known in Bermuda as the cahow, a name derived from its eerie cries, this nocturnal ground-nesting seabird is the national bird of Bermuda and can be found pictured on Bermudi ...

of which he wrote the scientific description in 1916 together with

John Treadwell Nichols John Treadwell Nichols (June 11, 1883 – November 10, 1958) was an American ichthyologist and ornithologist. Life and career Nichols was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Blake (Slocum) and John White Treadwell Nic ...

. In 1907, he married Hilda Higinbotham. Their son Louis Mowbray rediscovered the Bermuda petrel in 1951 together with

Robert Cushman Murphy The whaling ship, ''Daisy'', which Murphy traveled on to the Antarctic Robert Cushman Murphy (April 29, 1887 – March 20, 1973) was an American ornithologist and Lamont Curator of birds at the American Museum of Natural History. He went on numer ...

and

David B. Wingate David Balcombe Wingate OBE, born October 11, 1935, is an ornithologist, naturalist and conservationist. He was born in Bermuda. In 1951 he helped Robert Cushman Murphy and Louis S. Mowbray re-discover a bird species thought extinct since ...

. Louis Leon Arthur Mowbray was hired by the

Bermuda Natural History Society ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...

as director for Bermuda's first aquarium. He ran the aquarium until 1911. In 1911, he became director of the

South Boston Aquarium The South Boston Aquarium was a public aquarium in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. Previous Aquariums Boston was one of the first cities in the U.S. to have a public aquarium in the form of the Boston Aquarial Gardens, also known as Cutting and ...

which he ran for three years. In 1914, he became superintendent of the

New York Aquarium The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, located on the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. It was founded at Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896, and moved ...

. Between 1919 and 1923 he spent in Miami where he built up and ran a new aquarium. In 1923, he rejoined the staff of the New York Aquarium and in 1926 he returned to Bermuda. In 1928 he became director of the

Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo The Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ) is a facility located in Flatts Village, Bermuda, about east of the United States and at the geographic center of Bermuda. It was established in 1926 by the Bermuda government to enhance a growing tou ...

which he ran until 1944. Mowbray successfully bred the first Galapagos tortoises and Galapagos penguins in captivity. In 1943, a stroke left him partially paralysed. He quit as curator in 1944 and was succeeded by his son Louis. On 5 June 1952, he died at the age of 74.

References

Louis Leon Arthur Mowbray Biography
Bermudian ornithologists Bermudian naturalists 1877 births 1952 deaths People from St. George's Parish, Bermuda {{Bermuda-bio-stub