"Claude, a rare albino alligator whose ghostly white scales and statue-like stillness earned him a cult-like following around the world, died Tuesday, according to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. He was 30. The cause was end-stage liver cancer, Bart Shepherd, director of the museum's Steinhart Aquarium, said in an interview Wednesday night. A connoisseur of fish heads (preferably trout) and just-unfrozen rats dubbed 'ratsicles,' Claude had been closely monitored in recent weeks because of a waning appetite."
"He was moved out of his publicly-viewable swamp habitat to be treated for a suspected infection and had seemed to be responding well to antibiotics before he was found dead early Tuesday morning, Shepherd said. A necropsy was conducted at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine on Tuesday, revealing that "almost the entire liver" was overtaken with cancerous tumors, Shepherd said."
Claude was a rare albino alligator who died at age 30 from end-stage liver cancer. The liver was almost entirely overtaken by cancerous tumors found during a necropsy at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Claude had shown a waning appetite, was moved from his publicly viewable swamp habitat for treatment, and appeared to respond to antibiotics before being found dead. Hatched on Sept. 15, 1995 at a Louisiana alligator farm, Claude spent 17 years at the California Academy of Sciences aquarium in Golden Gate Park. Claude became a local cultural icon appearing on billboards, transit advertisements, in two children's books, and on a 24/7 Claude Cam livestream underwritten by Anthropic.
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