Two hunters in Florida killed an 800-pound alligator measuring 15 feet in length.
800 Pound Gator
Outwest Farms owner Lee Lightly and hunting guide Blake Godwin posted pictures of the behemoth that they killed at one of their cattle ponds on April 2. The men believed the gator had been eating cattle on the farm.
“We also discovered the remains what we determined to be cattle in the water. We determined that he was in fact attacking our livestock as they came to drink,” Godwin told Fox 13.
When the gator surfaced near the men in a pond on the farm, the men shot and killed it. The creature was so large that it had to be lifted by a tractor.
On the farm’s Facebook page, the kill was announced in a post that has since been removed: “Lee Lightley and I had the pleasure of doing a guided gator hunt this morning and killed the largest gator we have ever killed in the wild! He measured out at just under 15 foot!”
Lightly said that the largest gator he had previously caught measured just over 14 feet in length.
The men plan to donate the gator’s meat to charity, while the carcass will be sent to a taxidermist to be displayed at shows.
Outwest Farms is a company that has offered guided hunts for alligators, wild boar, and turkey for about 18 years.
“It is hard to believe that something this big exists in the wild,” Godwin told Fox 13. “Hunting is a way of life for us and we are very proud of it!”
Despite its massive size, this gator is no match for the largest recognized gator in the world, a 15-foot 9-inch specimen that weighed over 1000 pounds, caught in Alabama in 2014. There is also some evidence that a 19-foot gator was once caught in Louisiana back in 1890.
Alligators are a common sight in some parts of Florida. In 2015, a gator roamed onto a golf course green and parked itself there for a relaxing bask in the sun.