Die turbulente Geschichte des China-Alligators Mao und drei seiner Artgenossen: ein ungewöhnliches Weihnachtsgeschenk des Entomologen Hermann Höne an das Aquarium des Berliner Zoos.

Based on two letters written by the entomologist Hermann Höne in 1954 to the aquarium of the Berlin Zoo, which were found in the archives of the Museum Koenig in Bonn, the story is retold of four Chinese Alligators (Alligator sinensis) that arrived at the German capital zoo at Christmas 1937. During the war, the valuable crocodiles were evacuated to Leipzig Zoo, so that they survived the destruction of the Berlin Aquarium. In 1953, however, only two of them made it back to Berlin, the male specimen of which was christened Mao. Together with the already existing Mississippi alligator Swampy, both crocodiles made regular headlines, not only inthe local press, due to their interspecific struggles and thus gained a certain popularity, which is rather unusual for zoo reptiles. An attempt is made to trace the further fate of the four alligators and their partial journey into natural history museum collections up to the present day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]