Saturn, the oldest alligator in the world has died in the Moscow Zoo. This Mississippi born alligator with a historical past breathed its last due to old age on May 21 and has many secrets attached to it. Reports claimed that Saturn will be stuffed and kept on display in Moscow's museum of biology named after Charles Darwin.
Saturn was born in Mississippi in the US in 1936. Soon after its birth, it was gifted to Berlin Zoo. But when the zoo was being bombed during World War II in 1943, it escaped the zoo and survived the blast. However, its life until it was found in 1946 is mysterious to day. It is not known where exactly the British soldiers found Saturn.
Three-Year Mysterious Life
After three years of it went missing, British soldiers found Saturn and handed it over to the Soviet Union. So, since 1946, the alligator has been housed in the Moscow Zoo and has become one of the most visited animals in the zoo for the last 74 years.
Meanwhile, a rumor that the alligator belonged to Adolf Hitler, Nazi leader of Germany was making rounds. But this claim has been proved wrong and it is said that Saturn did not have any connections with Hitler. Moscow Zoo dismissed such reports and said that animals do not belong to politics and mustn't be held responsible for human sins. However, it is not known when these rumors originated.
The Zoo paid respects to the alligator, "Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age. He was about 84 years old - an extremely respectable age," it posted on social media.
The Zoo representatives also said that Saturn had seen many of them since they were children. "We hope that we did not disappoint him (Saturn)," they said. The Zoo also stated that Saturn was good at recognizing them and lived being massaged with a brush. But if irritated, it bit the steel feeding tongs and cracked it open.
