Who is Gaston?
The guy? Actually not. Do you remember him? Quite famous in 2002. Unhappily famous.
During the floods in the summer of 2002, the lower part of the zoo was flooded. Gaston and the other sea lions stayed in their enclosure and circled around. They dispersed until August 12, when the spectator stand was demolished. After that, they tried to reunite, to find each other and their home territory, but mostly unsuccessfully. Gaston first stayed in the flooded elephant enclosure, but during the following day he disappeared from there and began to flee down the Vltava. Although he was seen in many places, attempts to capture him failed. Zoologists from the zoo in Ústí nad Labem managed to feed him at least. It was only on 19 August that German rescuers caught him in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg after he had swum more than 300 kilometres. He died of exhaustion.