Thousands in San Francisco mourn beloved albino alligator, Claude

Claude wasn’t much of a talker, moved little, and never wore a costume to seduce his audience — but on Sunday, hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco to celebrate the life and legacy of the city’s beloved albino alligator.

Featuring a New Orleans-style marching band, an eight-foot white sourdough loaf shaped like an alligator, drag queen story time, and even a street officially named after him, Claude the Alligator Alley, the monument was one of a kind.

The creep certainly won millions of hearts while he was alive, but he was also remembered for stealing from a 12-year-old girl.

Bart Shepherd of the California Academy of Sciences, whose home was Claude for 17 years before her death in December, recalled that the 10-foot-long, 300-pound white alligator with pink eyes and poor vision once stole the girl’s ballet shoes and then swallowed them.

“Taking a shoe off an alligator is no small feat,” Shepherd told a crowd of Claude’s fans in Golden Gate Park.

Shepherd said it took a lot of anesthesia, special tools and a lot of veterinarians and staff to get the shoe out of Claude. This mission was successfully completed despite a building-wide fire alarm going off at the time.

“It was really encouraging to see San Francisco come out to celebrate this beloved San Francisco icon,” Jeanette Peach, the academy’s communications director, told the BBC.

Peach said one reason people love Claude so much is that he “really embodies what we think of as the San Francisco ideal, which is to not just accept but welcome people for their differences.”

Peach said Claude albinism, which is extremely rare in alligators, provides visibility to people who feel a bit left out.

“Here is this wonderful animal that is a little bit ostracized from the rest of its species, but is loved and valued and has value,” he added.

“It has delighted and fascinated more than 22 million visitors and shown us the power of ambassador animals to connect people with nature and science,” Claude wrote on the academy’s website.

The reptile, who died of liver cancer in December at the age of 30, was hatched at an alligator farm in Louisiana in 1995 and went to live in the academy’s swamp exhibit in 2008.

Since his death, the academy has received thousands of letters from Claude’s fans telling them how much the crocodile meant to them.

“Thank you for inspiring so many little children over the years,” one of Claude’s visitors wrote in a note to him. “You reminded us that our differences are what make us unique and special, and that they are something to be celebrated.”

“You will be in my heart forever,” another wrote. “I will miss you so much and thank you for being a part of my childhood.”

Lana Krol, a senior veterinarian at the academy, said that of all the alligators she had worked with, Claude “impressed me as the most relaxed.”

Krol said, “I can easily say that I will never encounter another crocodile like Claude in my life. I will miss him very much.”