Belgrade Trip – Belgrade Zoo and the Oldest Known Alligator in the World

This is Muju and he’s the oldest known alligator in the world, thought to have been hatched in a German zoo between 1925 and 1935. Unfortunately, the zoo records were lost during the Second World War, but it’s known that he came to Belgrade Zoo in 1937. He’s gone through the Second World War, the collapse of Yugoslavia, the NATO bombings of the city and I suspect he might well be getting a little bored now. Although that requires it to be possible for an alligator to be able to be bored, I have no idea whether that’s a thing for reptiles. He got gangrene in his front leg in 2012, so it was cut off in a bid to extend his life.

Apparently he doesn’t move much and his food is put in front of him, which sounds a convenient way to live a life, although not necessarily entirely fulfilling. But, alligators probably don’t feel the need to be fulfilled in their lives, so he just remains on display in his little pond. I was worried that I might drop my phone on him, so I was very careful, but I do wonder what has fallen into this pond over the years. Just in case he gets bored of sitting in this pond, they’ve built him a little cave area to lounge about in as well.

The BBC have even made a video of the alligator, just in case one of my two loyal blog readers wanted to find out even more….