Alligator, Rumored To Have Once Belonged To Hitler, Dies In Moscow Zoo

An 84-year-old alligator, part of the Moscow Zoo, died of old age Friday. The reptile named Saturn was once rumored to be part of Adolf Hitler’s personal collection, but the zoo dismissed the hearsay.

The Moscow Zoo announced Saturn the alligator died Friday morning. According to the zoo, Mississippi alligators typically live up to 30 or 50 years. However, Saturn’s stay at the Moscow Zoo alone exceeded the typical lifespan of an alligator as he spent 74 years of his life at the facility.

Born in the United States around 1936, Saturn was gifted to the Berlin Zoo, but he escaped when the facility was bombed during World War II in 1943. At the time, the zoo’s aquarium suffered so much damage that passersby reported seeing corpses of crocodiles on the street. As for Saturn, his whereabouts in the years that followed were unknown until 1946 when British soldiers found him and gave him to the Soviet Union.

Rumors then circulated Saturn was actually from Hitler’s personal collection instead of the Berlin Zoo, but the facility denied the hearsay, saying animals "do not belong to politics and mustn't be held responsible for human sins."

How Saturn spent the years outside the zoo as well as how the rumors of him being a part of Hitler's collection started remain mysteries.

"Moscow Zoo has had the honour of keeping Saturn for 74 years," the Berlin Zoo said in a statement, according to the BBC. "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."

According to the BBC, Saturn could have been the oldest alligator in the world at 84 years old. Another male alligator could shoo-in for the title, however, as the Belgrade Zoo's Muja is already in his 80s and is still alive.

Saturn's remains will be taxidermied and placed on exhibit at the Darwin Museum, Moscow.