The world's oldest alligator held in captivity is recovering at his home in Belgrade Zoo after undergoing surgery this week.
Muja, thought to be over 75-years-old, needed his foot amputated after it was diagnosed with gangrene.
Once X-ray images confirmed that Muja was suffering from a life-threatening condition, a team of experts were called in to perform surgery on the 200kg animal.
The operation had to be done using local anaesthesia, which meant that Muja had to be tied down to the operating table during the three-hour procedure.
"The surgery was performed here, in the enclosure he lives in during the winter. We placed him on the (operating) table and immobilized him," explained zookeeper Aleksandar Rakocevic. "It was done using local anaesthesia, as we couldn't risk sedating him by using total anaesthesia because of his old age. There was a possibility that he might not wake up from total anaesthesia."
Muja is still regularly given antibiotics, but experts say his life is no longer threatened.
"The very next day after the surgery he started eating. He ate his usual type of food, which is meat. Every time he eats it is a sign of his recovery," said Mr Rakocevic.
Muja was brought to Belgrade Zoo in 1937 from Germany as a fully grown male. He is one of the few animals who survived heavy bombings of Belgrade in World War II when the zoo compound was almost completely destroyed.
He has been living alone at the zoo since the 1960s, when a female alligator he shared his enclosure with died.
Muja officially became the world's oldest alligator in captivity in 2007, when another member of his species called Cabulitis died in Riga Zoo in Latvia at around 75-years-old.
3 News / Reuters