Saturn (alligator)
Berlin Zoological Garden | |
Named after | Saturn prev. Adolf Hitler |
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Saturn (Russian: Сату́рн, IPA: [sɐˈturn]; 1936 – 22 May 2020) was an American alligator residing in the Moscow Zoo. He was the subject of an urban myth that he was previously Adolf Hitler's "pet alligator".
After hatching in
Physical description
Saturn was described as having been 2[3] to 3.5[4] meters long, and weighed 200 kilograms (441 pounds).[3] Like most alligators, he had green scales, a broad mouth, and yellow eyes.[4]
Berlin Zoological Garden
Saturn was hatched in the wild in the U.S. state of
During World War II, much of the Berlin Zoo was destroyed.[4] Of the zoo's 16,000 animals, only 96 survived.[4][5] When the aquarium building was destroyed by a bomb on 23 November 1943, 20 to 30 alligators and crocodiles were killed.[4][5] Press reports documented that the streets near the aquarium were littered with alligator and crocodile corpses, but that some, including Saturn, had survived and were wandering through the city in search of food.[4]
Moscow Zoo
At the close of the war, the Berlin Zoo area came under the jurisdiction of the
In the 1950s, the United States gave the Soviet Union a younger, female alligator as a gift.[3][9] She was named Shipka, and she and Saturn began mating, but they did not produce any offspring as all of Shipka’s eggs were infertile.[3][9] Shipka, who was thirteen years younger than Saturn, later died, and Saturn was so distressed by her death that he refused food for a time.[5] By 2005, Saturn had a new mate, who was then thirty years old.[4]
During his time at the Moscow Zoo, Saturn experienced several narrow escapes from death. In the 1980s, a slab of concrete fell from the aquarium's ceiling into the alligator enclosure, but he was in a protective niche at the time.[4] In 1990, a new aquarium building was built, but Saturn resisted the move, refusing to eat for four months and coming close to death.[4] On another occasion, a drunk zoo visitor threw a boulder on his head to wake him up, after which zoo veterinarians fought to keep him alive for months.[3] Later, a group of tourists threw glass bottles at Saturn, injuring him.[11] After these incidents, the enclosure was made more secure with the addition of a thick glass wall.[3][11] In the 2010s, Saturn once again stopped eating, this time for nearly a year.[9] Zoo staff took blood samples for analysis, and injected him with vitamins to try to keep him alive.[9] He eventually resumed eating.[9]
In his later years, Saturn spent much of his time sleeping. He ate a diet of fish, rabbits, and rats twice a week.[4][9] Vladimir Kudryavtsev, the head of the Moscow Zoo's reptile department, said that not many visitors knew of Saturn's eventful history.[4] Zoo staff only related Saturn's German origins to groups of visiting schoolchildren.[4] When school groups came, the zookeepers allowed children to stick the end of a broomstick into the enclosure, which was safe because Saturn was generally peaceful.[4] His only violent incident occurred in 1970, when he tried to bite an inexperienced warden who tried to feed him by hand.[4]
In 2015, the Moscow Zoo renovated the Terrarium, where the alligator enclosure is located.[6][10][13] A new interior and reconstructed enclosure were completed, and Saturn returned to public display.[6][10] That year, Saturn was also sponsored by French clothing company Lacoste, whose logo is a crocodile.[4]
The Moscow Zoo announced that Saturn had died at the age of 83 or 84 on 22 May 2020. Mississippi alligators usually live 30–50 years in the wild. Saturn may have been the world's oldest alligator, although the title may belong to Muja, a male alligator residing at the Belgrade Zoo who is still alive as of 2020 and is in his 80s. At the time of Saturn's death, it was reported that his corpse was to be stuffed and placed on display at the State Darwin Museum, a biology museum in Moscow.[2]
References
- ^ "В московском зоопарке умер аллигатор, якобы принадлежавший Гитлеру (in Russian) (In the Moscow zoo, an alligator died, allegedly belonging to Hitler)". Retrieved 23 May 2020.
- ^ a b "Berlin WW2 bombing survivor Saturn the alligator dies in Moscow Zoo". BBC News. 23 May 2020. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "RUSSIA: MOSCOW ZOO: ALLIGATOR | AP Archive". www.aparchive.com. 24 December 2000. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Albes, Andreas (9 May 2005). "Kinder dürfen ihn auch schon mal piesacken" [Children may even peck him]. stern.de (in German). Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Akunin, Boris. "Борис Акунин "Сатурн почти не виден"" [Saturn is almost invisible]. www.moscowzoo.ru. Archived from the original on 19 February 2015. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "Hitler's pet alligator is 85 and living in Moscow – Nearly First". archive.is. 5 March 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c "Alligator from the Moscow zoo were suspected of having links with Hitler". Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ "Advertising and PR-campaign of the Moscow Zoo" (PDF). Naewu.com. Retrieved 26 February 2017.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Levkovich, Yevgeny (24 February 2017). "Legends of the Moscow Zoo: Reptilian rumors and killer crocs". Russia Beyond The Headlines. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "Трофейного крокодила Гитлера снова можно увидеть в Московском зоопарке" [Trophy crocodile Hitler can be seen again in the Moscow Zoo]. Телеканал 360 (in Russian). Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ a b c "The last prisoner - Adolf Hitler's pet... - Ultimate moscow guide | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ Dukess, Karen (15 February 1994). "130 Years of History at the City Zoo". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ "Our Terrarium has opened after reconstruction". moscowzoo.su. Moscow Zoo. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
External links
- @MoscowZoo (23 May 2020). Вчера утром наш миссисипский аллигатор Сатурн умер от старости [Yesterday morning, our Mississippi alligator Saturn died of old age] (Tweet) (in Russian) – via Twitter.
- Kellerhoff, Sven Felix (24 May 2020). "Was ist dran an der Story von "Hitlers Alligator"" [What is it about the story of “Hitler’s Alligator”]. Die Welt (in German). — Photos of the Berlin Zoo aquarium in 1930 and 1943.