Claude the albino alligator, the longtime mascot of the California Academy of Sciences who died unexpectedly earlier this week at the age of 30, now has an official cause of death.The caretakers of Claude at the Cal Academy said in an earlier statement that they were getting ready to run some tests on the alligator, after he'd appeared ill and had stopped eating. And then he was unexpectedly found dead in his swamp grotto early Tuesday morning. Now, as the museum announced on Instagram, a necropsy revealed that Claude had liver cancer."Preliminary findings from the necropsy performed by experts at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Steinhart Aquarium Senior Veterinarian Dr. Lana Krol revealed that Claude had extensive liver cancer with evidence of liver failure, as well as signs of systemic infection," they explain. "Treatment options were limited and likely would have had minimal success."The Academy of Sciences adds that while Claude may have been ill for some time, caretakers could not have known. "It is often difficult to diagnose health issues in apex predators due to their propensity to hide illness, and Claude’s behavior was normal until just a few weeks before his death," they write. "A change in the color and texture of Claude's skin was the clearest sign of his declining health, and prompted immediate action by his care team."Claude had many fans across the city and beyond, and as the Academy said in their initial announcement of his death, "Claude was celebrated as the unofficial mascot of the Academy and San Francisco itself, and regularly received fan mail, gifts, and artwork from adoring fans around the world."The museum adds, "Claude showed us the power of ambassador animals to connect people to nature and stoke curiosity to learn more about the world around us."Claude came to the museum at age 13 in 2008, from St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, an alligator rescue organization in Florida. He had been hatched in Louisiana and was found by a rescuer there.There are estimated to only be about 100 to 200 albino alligators alive in the world. An even rarer leucistic alligator — one which also lacks pigmentation but this stems from a different genetic mutation — was born in captivity in Florida in 2023.Claude's 30th birthday had just been cause for extensive celebrations at the museum in September, and that dedicated grotto at the rear of the main floor of the museum will surely feel conspicuously empty for some time.Previously: Beloved Albino Alligator Claude, Mascot of the Academy of Sciences, Has Died ...read more read less