‘Stallone’ the alligator retiring to Myrtle Beach after 6 years in a Virginia museum

They named him “Stallone,” as in Sylvester, for his crooked smile and misaligned jaw. But this Stallone’s only fame has been at the Virginia Living Museum, where he has lived for the past six years, according to the museum.

Stallone’s new home with be at Alligator Adventure. The 40-pound 5.5-foot gator is headed to North Myrtle Beach to start a new life in South Carolina, according to the Hampton Newport News Daily.

Stallone will follow a well-worn path to retirement from the north to a new home near the beach in South Carolina.

Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries officers found Stallone in Virginia Beach in May 2012, the newspaper reported, and they took the gator to the museum.

Stallone has lived in the museum’s cypress swamp exhibit since his capture. The museum posted a video to YouTube showing him taking his first cautious steps in the habitat when he was moved into the exhibit in 2015.

Now he will be surrounded by other gators and as many as 200 different species that call Alligator Adventure home.

This story was originally published November 8, 2018 at 2:57 PM with the headline "‘Stallone’ the alligator retiring to Myrtle Beach after 6 years in a Virginia museum."