- Who
- Muja
- What
- 80:252 year(s):day(s)
- Where
- Serbia (Belgrade)
- When
The oldest alligator currently in captivity is Muja, an adult male American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) living at Belgrade Zoo in Serbia. Muja's precise age when he was sent from Germany to Belgrade Zoo in 1937 is not known, although he was already fully grown. However, as he has lived there continuously since his arrival on 12 September 1937, this means that as of 22 May 2018 he was at least 80 years 252 days. Moreover, as young alligators after hatching grow 3–8 inches (7.6–20.3 centimetres) per year as they mature, and are deemed to be adults when they attain a length of 6 feet (1.8 metres), meaning that it takes on average around 12 years for an alligator to become fully mature. So as Muja was already fully grown when he arrived at the zoo, he may have already been at least 10–12 years old, which today would make him as old as 90–92 years old.
Muja miraculously survived the extensive World War II bombings of Belgrade in 1941 and 1944, during which the zoo was almost completely levelled by artillery fire and aerial bombing, killing many of its animals. More recently, he also lived through the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade, during which bombs destroyed buildings within a few blocks of his home.
In 2012, Muja required surgery to amputate one of his feet after it became infected.
