Gator Season's Open

[santaman2000]

This one was caught this week locally:

"The gator, measuring 13 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches, is believed to weigh close to 1,000 pounds."

"By WENDY VICTORA
Posted Aug 29, 2018 at 1:02 PM Updated Aug 29, 2018 at 1:02 PM



If you live in Freeport and hang around Basin Bayou, you’ve probably seen him. Local folks, especially fishermen, have been watching a giant gator in the small bayou all summer.

And on Friday night, there were at least five boats filled with gator hunters, all hoping to glimpse him again.

In the end, he was brought down by two men and a boy who hooked him and lost him and found him again. The gator, measuring 13 feet, 6 and 3/4 inches, is believed to weigh close to 1,000 pounds.

“We tried every way,” said Dalton Morrison, who was out there with his dad, Tilton, and a family friend, 11-year-old Cade Nick. “We couldn’t get him loaded in the boat.”

Finally, they tied him to the cleats of the boat and towed him to shore. It took seven grown men and Cade to tug him from the water into a freezer truck.

PHOTOS: Nearly 1,000-lb giant gator caught in Basin Bayou




Dalton, who is a gator and hog hunting guide, said Bass Pro Shops has reached out to him about buying the gator’s skin for a display. The meat will be vacuum packed and eaten.

An officer from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came out to see the gator and guessed its weight at between 900 and 1,000 pounds, Morrison said.

The animal put up quite a fight. He first showed himself around 1 a.m., but he got away after a 45-minute fight,

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PHOTOS: Nearly 1,000-lb giant gator caught in Basin Bayou
“We were all depressed and aggravated,” Morrison said. “There was a little bit of yelling going on. Finally Cade said, ‘Let’s go look for another one. I don’t even care if it’s a little one. I just want to get one.’”

They went over to the grassy shoreline and were shining lights down into the water when they spotted the gator in about 2 feet of water. After a couple of hours and a lot of rope burn, they subdued him.

“He drug us all over the bayou,” Morrison said. “We wore him down. (Wildlife officials) want to make sure you got the gator completely in your control. With a 14-foot creature, they’re never really in your control.”


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[Janne]

He/she could have lots and lots of fine, strong babies.

 

[Robson Valley]

Depends upon the survivorship/mortality curve like life insurance = they are not humans.
Gimme a sack of lemons and a bag of bread crumbs and let me fix you a feed.

 

[santaman2000]

He/she could have lots and lots of fine, strong babies.

A gator that size is probably at least 50 to 60 years old. They lay dozens of eggs in a single laying/nesting. But!!!!! (see below)

Depends upon the survivorship/mortality curve like life insurance = they are not humans.
......

Exactly. Out of each nesting only a very few survive the first year. Out of those only a few survive another year. After that they have few enemies except other gators ---- yes, they're canbalistic (they'll be a foot or more long by the second year)

 

[sunndog]

They need an implant that makes them hunt snakeheads and such lol

 

[Janne]

In a balanced population each pair can inly produce a couple of offspring that lives until they reproduce.
Or the population would explode.
I think that was what I was taught by my biology teacher.

 

[santaman2000]

In a balanced population each pair can inly produce a couple of offspring that lives until they reproduce.
Or the population would explode.
I think that was what I was taught by my biology teacher.

LOL. The gator population HAS exploded in the last 40 years or so. So has their range.

 

[Janne]

Interesting! That is fantastic, most other animal species worlwide are in decline.
Many native species decline, invasive species spread.

I am assuming they are repopulating their old territories?

Eating the meat of a such old animal, is it really nice?

 

[santaman2000]

Interesting! That is fantastic, most other animal species worlwide are in decline.
Many native species decline, invasive species spread.

I am assuming they are repopulating their old territories?

Eating the meat of a such old animal, is it really nice?

Not just their old territories; they've expanding well beyond. There are now viable populations as far north as the mid Atlantic (Virginia and the Carolinas) and as far west as the foot of the Ozarks (Arkansas)

 

[Janne]

So technically invasive.
308Win ?

 

[santaman2000]

So technically invasive.
308Win ?

I'm not sure you can call a natural expansion invasive though. 308? No. Not for hunting them anyway. Baited fishing tackle and then a small caliber (often as light as a 22LR) behind the ear. Read the article and you'll see they fought it as it pulled the boat around the bayou for quite a while.

 

[Janne]

As it is on the same continent maybe it can not be called 'invasive'. I have seen how they catch gators in that series ( forgot the name) and always marveled how they shoot them with a .22.

I personally would prefer to keep well away from those teeth and use something stronger!

 

[santaman2000]

As it is on the same continent maybe it can not be called 'invasive'. I have seen how they catch gators in that series ( forgot the name) and always marveled how they shoot them with a .22.

I personally would prefer to keep well away from those teeth and use something stronger!

Yeah I saw a few episodes of the series too (Swamp People) and wasn't really impressed. Until a few days ago Ididn't know how they were hunted for real either (I didn't trust the show) I've just been reading a little more this gator season.

 

[Duggie Bravo]

Seems a shame to kill something so magnificent, but at least it will be eaten, so not wasted.


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[sunndog]

Seems a shame to kill something so magnificent, but at least it will be eaten, so not wasted.


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Seems a shame to kill something so magnificent, but at least it will be eaten, so not wasted.


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Depends how many of those magnificent creatures there are. Or how many people are willing to have them living in their garden

 

[Duggie Bravo]

Depends how many of those magnificent creatures there are. Or how many people are willing to have them living in their garden

Oh I get that, I’m speaking as someone who lives on a different continent and the most dangerous animal I’m likely to come across at the bottom of my garden is a squirrel.


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[sunndog]

Oh I get that, I’m speaking as someone who lives on a different continent and the most dangerous animal I’m likely to come across at the bottom of my garden is a squirrel.


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Aye the Americans can have the squirrels back too lol

 

[Robson Valley]

There are 3 different animal survivorship curves for mortality. No, you cannot push a species from one curve to another.
Start with 1,000 eggs/babies and watch.

Humans have High Survivorship/Low Mortality = Good probability of living a long % of the known life span.

Moose and Robins (birds) have Consistent Mortality. They die off at a steady rate for the whole know live span ( moose = 20 years max).

Alligators (?), insects and most fish have High Mortality/ Low Survivorship.
The definition is that 50% of the population dies within the first 15% of the lifespan ( or worse.) This is absolutely normal.

This is real ecology, not Dr. Google.

 

[forrestdweller]

LOL. The gator population HAS exploded in the last 40 years or so. So has their range.

so has the population of homo ""sapiens" "...