Large Gator Caught this morning

[ItzKatzTime]

SJ....do they need a license to kill an alligator. Or do they go out hunting alligator? I'm confused about who can do this....and was it becasue it was close to a refuge area????

It kind of didn't make me feel so good to see something hanging like that. But I'm not into knowing the ins and out of gator hunting.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Minnie, it is not my son or grandson in the post. It was sent from a friend a family member.

As for alligators, over the years, the populations have grown very large in some areas, and they now have alligator hunting season, just like they do for many other game species. In FL, I think the tag limit is two per season. I have no idea what the tag limits are for gators in Alabama or Georgia. The gator in this photo in my first post was killed in either GA or AL, not sure which since the State line meets in the middle of the River channel. The Wildlife Refuge is open to hunting during the seasons, with special permits, not much different from the State Forests in SoWal being opened for hunting with restrictions and permits. However, according to the person who wrote about this particular gator, she notes that it was killed north of the Refuge.

I, too, don't like the looks of the gator dangling from the yellow equipment. Kind of takes away from primitive forms of hunting. Did you see the size of that hook in the gator's mouth? Really, if they are going to have their photo taken with the trophy, I think it would look best to have the gator on the ground as though it were still live. Having it hoisted into the air, reminds me too much of someone being hanged, like there is much being more being said than, "we killed a trophy gator."

 

[mrs.rocket]

How old do you think a gator that big would be? He looked like he might've been around for a while.

 

[kathydwells]

I too find the photo disturbing. It just saddens me to see him hanging there and the two people smiling and touching it. I hate those pictures of people smiling and holding up the heads of the dead deers they kill as well. And yes, I am a meat eater, and yes, I understand about hunting and all and the reasons for it, but it is just hard for me to look at the pictures of the "kill".

 

[NoHall]

Heck, I even gave up kickball.

Don't give up kickball! It's too much fun!

Now if you would like for me to take your photo skiing with big gators in the background, let me know, and I'll put dad's boat in the water and meet you there. Want to go?

How 'bout we go to another part of the lake, ski, take some pictures, then (after double-checking the forecast for impending storms) we can ride up and take some pictures of the gators. That's what Photo Shop is for.

I just remembered a time when we headed way north, beyond our usual skiing area, in the heart of alligator country where the Refuge is located. They are literally, everywhere...We managed to get the boat off the sandbar and got back in the boat, but my friend and I were more than a little scared by it all.

I have a similar story about working as a lifeguard in central Florida and having to rescue a stranded paddleboat in gator-infested waters during a storm. Of course, these gators were little, but it still was a rough afternoon for my nerves!

After working more at the Refuge during that summer, I began to grow more at ease seeing the gators and being in the same water with them occasionally popping up around us to see what we were up to. At that Refuge, they were basically undisturbed by people, and I think they are less likely to cause trouble when the occasional person comes into contact with them. Around here, where people hang out around them all the time, they are a little more scary to me.

That truly is the sad and scary part...The little gators at that camp would swim up to the paddleboats hoping to get some Cheetos. Wildlife is better left wild.

 

[audie]

I too find the photo disturbing. It just saddens me to see him hanging there and the two people smiling and touching it. I hate those pictures of people smiling and holding up the heads of the dead deers they kill as well. And yes, I am a meat eater, and yes, I understand about hunting and all and the reasons for it, but it is just hard for me to look at the pictures of the "kill".

i'm with you on this one - it's sad. the deer pics just tear me up. i even hate to see sharks strung up like that....

 

[ItzKatzTime]

I'm terrible about anything hanging up, it just looks so surreal, strange, weird, sad. I lived in Wyoming for a few years and in the winter I used to pass the elk refuge in Jackson Hole and it was terrible to see the people on the side of the road waiting for them to come down the path to the refuge and shoot them. They had to get a 100 yards off the road, but you could easily see them as they went down. They let them do this when the numbers of the elk were too high.:shock: But I think it was even worse to see their camp sites along the road with long rows of elk hanging next to one another. For a southern girl Wyoming was like another country...and this was their life, much like fishing and crabbing is nothing to us. They lived all year off this meat.

 

[Smiling JOe]

When I see a photo of something like this good size gator hanging from a back hoe, I want the people in the photo to at least look a little worn and beaten, like they just wrestled with it for several hours while trying to catch it. I'd guess that once hooked, most people just pop a cap in the gator's head. Even if the gator was dead when they pulled it into the boat, how the heck do four people lean over the side of a boat and pull in a 500# animal which is over 12' long? The real fight would have been to pull it into the boat while it was still alive. Live to tell about that one, and maybe you should have your photo taken.

 

[ItzKatzTime]

When I see a photo of something like this good size gator hanging from a back hoe, I want the people in the photo to at least look a little worn and beaten, like they just wrestled with it for several hours while trying to catch it. I'd guess that once hooked, most people just pop a cap in the gator's head. Even if the gator was dead when they pulled it into the boat, how the heck do four people lean over the side of a boat and pull in a 500# animal which is over 12' long? The real fight would have been to pull it into the boat while it was still alive. Live to tell about that one, and maybe you should have your photo taken.

Me too SJ....you

 

[Biff]

Reminded me of the one in Central Fl a while back that had a golfer in his belly