It is with great sadness that it has been announced that veteran zoo-man Reg Bloom has died a few days prior to his 90th birthday. Reg was a talented and well respected animal man who worked in the zoo world for many, many years which included Chester Zoo and Flamingo Park Zoo aka Flamingoland. He is probably most well know for his pioneering work in the display of cetaceans at Flamingo Park, Windsor Safari Park and and number of other zoos and wildlife parks which later led him to display dolphins on the Clacton Pier in Essex. His legacy lives on though his two sons that continue to supply animals and expertise to both zoos and parks both in the UK and Europe.
The lack of response to this thread proves that you are a long time dead...as the old football chant goes"if you know your history".R.I.P.
I have just returned from my West Country zoo tour, so this is my first switch on since the 7th. What sad news. One of the great zoo men of the twentieth century. Many condolences to his family. I have the privilege of knowing one of his sons, Peter, and having several friends amongst the staff of the company he operates with his brother Anthony, but I never had the pleasure of meeting Reg. I should like to thank him, however, for his part in my happy childhood spent visiting the wonderful Flamingo Park of the 1960s he did so much to mould. As Tim says, R.I.P.
I was employed by the family for 8-9 years which started 25 years ago. Much of my work ethics today are from Reg. This news will be a distraction for me for some time I think. Mark Culleton
I first met Reg in the mid 1950's,loading animals from the London zoo's quarantine station in Camden Town, on to a train for Chester; I remember rhino and Cokes hartebeest. The next time was at Chester zoo in 1959 when George Mottershead & Reg interviewed me for a keepers job. Reg's opinion was that as an ex student I wouldn't last a month ; I was still working with zoo animals until 2005. Reg was very keen on african sunbirds but was a partner of John Seago [Seago & Bloom] who restocked many Zoos with African wildlife in the 50' after the war. Whilst at Chester he fetched a collection from the Congo including many sunbirds and most importantly 2 Gorillas [Mukisi and Noelle]. He was a hands-on zooman, there were no tranquilisers. Many of us will remember him fondly.
I first met Reg in the mid 1950's,loading animals from the London zoo's quarantine station in Camden Town, on to a train for Chester; I remember rhino and Cokes hartebeest. The next time was at Chester zoo in 1959 when George Mottershead & Reg interviewed me for a keepers job. Reg's opinion was that as an ex student I wouldn't last a month ; I was still working with zoo animals until 2005. Reg was very keen on african sunbirds but was a partner of John Seago [Seago & Bloom] who restocked many Zoos with African wildlife in the 50' after the war. Whilst at Chester he fetched a collection from the Congo including many sunbirds and most importantly 2 Gorillas [Mukisi and Noelle]. He was a hands-on zooman, there were no tranquilisers. Many of us will remember him fondly.
Did Mr. Bloom have involvement with Twycross in its very early days when it first opened advising Miss Badham and Miss Evans on running a "full size" zoo after they moved here from Hints?, I was once told that he did but nobody has been able to verify this since.
Would it have been Reg Bloom [and his wife Margaret?] who gave a talk one evening at an Avicultural Society gathering in London in 1978? Subject was the Green-headed Olive Sunbird. I was there.
That is interesting. I believe they imported the Black Rhino pair 'Willie' and 'Stephanie' to Bristol Zoo in the mid 1950's. That pair still have descendants among the large group living at Port Lympne in Kent. Mukisi and Noelle were obtained by the collector Charles Cordier- they are mentioned in Schaller's Book 'Year of the Gorilla.' Presumably Reg Bloom went out to get them from him.
Reg did go to twycross for a short time- there was a personality clash with Molly & Nat, so he moved on. Noelle and the Cordiers are featured in the National Geographic magazine of January 1960, which is on their CD . I am sure there is also a shot of Mukisi. Its a great piece of history .
This is Reg's biography produced by his family for those who may not have known him or his work within the zoo world
Many thanks for posting this very interesting biography John. What a wonderful book could be written about Reg; as I said earlier he was a great zoo man.
I didn't understand the MacKinders bit either; I know London Zoo were breeding them in the sixties [knew someone in Ipswich who bought one of the young birds for 15 pounds], but as for saving the species?
