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 Br ...

; 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, pictured on Bermudian currency. Berm ...

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 Ornithology, ornithologist. Life and career Nichols was born in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Blake (Slocum) and John White T ...

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

Robert Cushman Murphy file:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18156963552).jpg, 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 ...

and David B. Wingate. Louis Leon Arthur Mowbray was hired by the Bermuda Natural History Society as director for Bermuda's first aquarium. He ran the aquarium until 1911. In 1911, he became director of the South Boston Aquarium 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 Public aquarium, 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, i ...

. 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