Saturn, the legendary alligator of the Moscow zoo, dies at 84

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The Moscow zoo lost one of its oldest residents, an alligator who died of old age at the age of 84, on Friday 22 May. Originally from Mississippi, the animal had become a legend over time.

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The Moscow Zoo spoke of "  the end of an era  ". "  Saturn, our Mississippi alligator, died of old age on May 22,  " he said in a statement released on Saturday evening. He left "  at the respectable age of around 84 years  ", after having lived "  a long and eventful life  ", specifies the press release, stressing that in nature these alligators only live between 30 and 50 years.

Saturn was born in the United States in 1936. A few years later, he was transferred to the Berlin Zoo. It is there that it crosses the Second World War and in particular the bombardments of November 23, 1943. That day, in a few minutes, the zoo is razed and several reptiles are killed.

The alligator manages to escape and goes into hiding. We find his trace three years later, in 1946, when he was captured by British soldiers who took him to Leipzig, in the zone occupied by the Soviets. The reptile is sent to the Moscow Zoo, where a myth is born that Saturn was part of Hitler's personal collection. Many gray areas remain in his biography, including details about his arrival in Russia, the documents having burned in a fire in the zoo offices in the 1950s.

Saturn will have lived 74 years at the Moscow zoo, pampered by its keepers. They remember with sympathy his capricious nature when it came to meals and his very pronounced taste for brush massage.

Вчера утром наш миссисипский аллигатор Сатурн умер от старости. Ему было около 84 лет - крайне почтенный возраст. Московскому зоопарку выпала честь содержать Сатурна 74 года. Он видел многих из нас детьми. Надеемся, что мы его не разочаровали. pic.twitter.com/UigsB8xwBv

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