GREATEST GATOR

Famed Moscow Zoo Alligator That Survived WWII Bombings Dies

Saturn escaped the Berlin Zoo during a 1943 bombing and wasn’t seen again for three years.

The Moscow Zoo announced Saturday that its most famous reptile, an aged alligator named Saturn who lived at the park since 1946, had died. The life of an average alligator in the wild lasts 30-50 years, making Saturn an exceptional outlier. He was moved to the Berlin Zoo soon after his 1936 birth in the United States but escaped in 1943 during a bombing raid. He survived the remainder of World War II in unknown places, and the mystery of his next three years gave rise to a false rumor that Adolf Hitler himself had collected Saturn. In 1946, Allied soldiers captured him and gave him to the Soviets. According to the BBC, the zoo’s staff wrote on Instagram, “For us Saturn was an entire era. We say that without the slightest exaggeration. He arrived shortly after Victory [in World War II] and celebrated the 75th anniversary of Victory Day with us…. He saw many of us when we were children. We hope we didn't disappoint him.”