Alligator who survived WW2 bombing raid, Cold War dies at 84
Rumors were abound that the alligator may have spent some years as part of Adolf Hitler's personal collection.
By AARON REICHAlligator approached the 18th hole water edge during the third round of the Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana(photo credit: REUTERS)
After surviving a bombing raid in Berlin and outlasting both World War II and the Cold War, an 84-year-old alligator finally died of old age at the Moscow Zoo, AFP reported, citing a statement from the zoo.The Mississippi alligator, named Saturn, was born in the US in 1936 but was moved to the Berlin zoo. He eventually escaped, however, after the zoo was hit by a bombing raid on November 23, 1943, which had killed many other reptiles in the zoo.British soldiers handed him over to the Soviets in 1946 after finding him, and he was promptly given to the Moscow zoo in the summer of that year. What Saturn was up to during the intervening three years was a mystery, the zoo said, though there were rumors he may have been part of Adolf Hitler's personal collection.Regardless of how he spent the final years of the war, the Moscow zoo said that keeping him had been an "honor.""He came to us after the victory [over Nazi Germany], and celebrated the 75th anniversary of that victory with us," the zoo said."Moscow Zoo has had the honor of keeping Saturn for 74 years. For us Saturn was an entire era, and that's without the slightest exaggeration... He saw many of us when we were children. We hope that we did not disappoint him."Saturn, who was known for being a picky eater and enjoying being massaged with a brush, was long lived for members of his species, who rarely make it past 50 in the wild.It is possible that Saturn could have been one of, if not the oldest, members of his species, thought it is impossible to say for sure, the BBC reported, adding that another male alligator in his mid-80s, named Muja, is currently alive at the Belgrade zoo in Serbia.Saturn will be stuffed and displayed as an exhibit at Moscow's museum of biology, the State Darwin Museum, RT reported.
