The museum will take time to mourn but then consider what to do with Claude’s swamp
Less than three weeks before the California Academy of Sciences announced the death of Claude the albino alligator, Cruz the cougar passed away. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum announced Cruz’s death on Nov.
14. A month later, leaders at the Desert Museum have launched a search for a new mountain lion — or maybe even two, said Shawnee Riplog-Peterson, the museum’s curator of mammalogy and ornithology. But even for animals as plentiful around the country as mountain lions, the search is proving more difficult than Riplog-Peterson said she anticipated. She said that for reputable museums and zoos, acquiring animals is not conducted in a willy-nilly fashion and can sometimes require a long and complicated process. To start with, candidates must fit zoos’ or museums’ specific requirements for space, species, health and age. Leaders at the Cal Academy haven’t yet announced any plans for “the Swamp,” the exhibit that served as the 30-year-old Claude’s home for 17 years. But should they choose to populate the Swamp with another albino alligator, they have access to the necessary infrastructure and zoological networks to make it happen. “This is a big loss for the Academy and our community, and we are taking a moment to mourn the loss of Claude,” museum spokesperson Jeanette Peach wrote in an email to The Examiner. “The Steinhart Aquarium curatorial team will be in discussion in the coming weeks to assess the space, the collection plan, and make recommendations for future Swamp inhabitants.” Claude fans should note that Peach didn’t rule out the acquisition of another albino alligator. Those who would like the museum to pay homage to the late gator by acquiring a lookalike — or perhaps a female version — could plead their case in letters or emails to Cal Academy Executive Director Scott Sampson and Bart Shepherd, the senior director of the Steinhart Aquarium. The pair will likely be the ones who decide what kind of animal will inspire and wow San Francisco’s schoolchildren, animal lovers and science nerds in coming years. To be sure, finding another albino alligator that’s exhibition-worthy is a long shot. For starters, they’re extremely rare in the wild, with perhaps as few as 200 existing in the world, according to some estimates. Then the animal has to fit into an institution’s collection plan, the roadmap for what museums want to achieve with their exhibit, said Leslie Gordon, senior manager of collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. “Most good institutions ... have a specific collection plan, and it usually has many steps in terms of making sure the animal is appropriate for a collection,” Gordon said. “So if someone wanted me to go get a kangaroo, no matter how much money they wanted to offer — no, I’m not getting a kangaroo because it doesn't really align with our scientific mission.” Another challenge is that top-notch zoos and museums must adhere to rigorous standards and guidelines to ensure the health, safety and comfort of their animals. Riplog-Peterson said she could pick up a phone now and find a replacement for Cruz tomorrow, but it might mean paying a dealer for an animal with an uncertain origin or an undocumented health record. “That’s not who I am,” Riplog-Peterson said. “I’m one of those people who likes to get animals that have a story. Before taking them, we want to know they wouldn't have been able to survive in the wild.” As it turns out, Cruz’s story began in the Bay Area. A family found him in its backyard; when local cops got the call, they suspected the homeowners were mistaking a bobcat for a cougar. Ex // Top Stories 'A labor of love': Interfaith winter shelter program returns for 37th year During the coldest winter months in The City, a handful of faith organizations open up their sites as emergency shelter for the unhoused Despite recent rise, The City’s IPO market remains depressed The number of San Francisco and Bay Area startups that have gone public this year is up from 2024, but still hasn’t recovered to historical norms Heat up a cold December in The City with these 18 SF events This week’s highlights include pop-up marketplaces, concerts, tree-lighting ceremonies and block parties After discovering they were wrong — bobcats are much smaller animals — the police called the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, which nursed the malnourished and juvenile Cruz back to health. Cruz was between 6 months and 10 months old when he arrived at the Desert Museum, where he lived for more than 10 years. Another obstacle to acquiring animals for some institutions is the cost. Gordon estimated that the care and feeding of an albino alligator could easily run into the millions of dollars annually. Riplog-Peterson said her museum is constructing a new exhibit for the endangered Mexican gray wolf, and the cost is expected to top $1 million. Should Cal Academy need funding to acquire a new animal, it doesn’t lack for sources to hit up. Some of San Francisco’s wealthy donors — especially those from the area’s technology sector — have bestowed considerable sums on the museum. Cal Academy’s website includes a list of donors that features such philanthropic heavy hitters as Brook Byers, a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Alfred Lin, a partner at Sequoia Capital and former Zappos CFO; and Eric Schmidt, a former CEO of Google. Some newer tech tycoons have also begun to get involved. In April, when Cal Academy launched Academy Day to celebrate the anniversary of its founding, Anthropic — one of the leading AI startups headquartered in The City — agreed to sponsor the Claude webcam. The web camera enabled fans to peek in on the alligator 24/7. The webcam also handed Anthropic a clever marketing tool — the company’s most advanced AI models are named Claude, after Claude Shannon, the father of information theory. Though albino alligators are rare in the wild, Cal Academy could get lucky and find one. A number of other U.S. museums exhibit them, including the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. Who could blame Cal Academy leaders for trying to re-capture Claude’s special magic? The museum called Claude its mascot. The gift shop sold children’s books that featured cartoon Claudes beside stuffed animals made in Claude’s image.“Claude was beloved by millions, as evidenced by his huge reach and engagement on social media and the innumerable pieces of fan mail he received over the years,” Peach said. “In his 17 years at the Academy, over 22.5 million guests visited him and learned about threatened animals and habitats and the importance of protecting them. We’ve been bowled over by the outpouring of love after his passing, and we’ve received hundreds of notes from people sharing their memories of him and how he impacted their lives.”
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