There are only two species of alligators, the American alligator and the Chinese alligator, and the Chinese species has long been exceedingly rare—at one point it was considered extinct, until small populations were found in the vicinity of Wuhu and Tai'hu of the Yangtze River Valley. So it was with considerable excitement that reptile curator Charles "Chuck" Shaw received this gift from the director of the Prague Zoo, saying "we have realized one of our most cherished ambitions, that of being the possessors of probably the world's rarest crocodilian."