ENQUIRER HERALD (Rock Hill, S Carolina) 22 August 10 Getting ready for alligator season in S.C. (Roddie Burris)
Be careful when you're around them.
An alligator can still ``get you'' even when they're dead.
With that cautionary note from DNR alligator agent Dennis Matherly on Saturday, more than 1,200 excited people can get ready to take to the public waters of South Carolina for the annual alligator hunt.
The season opens Sept. 11 and closes a month later, with each licensed hunter allowed to capture one alligator.
And don't think the sport isn't popular in the Palmetto State. The number of permits sought by enthusiasts and granted by the state has grown each year since it became legal two years ago.
``Alligator hunting is like fishing and (land) hunting at the same time,'' said Mary Pernell of Summerville, who is both an alligator hunter and taxidermist in the Lowcountry. ``We have a bunch of alligators, and they need management, just like deer or other species.
``I don't think it's barbaric at all,'' the 48-year-old said. She and her husband snagged their first alligator last year in Goose Creek Plantation ” a 91/2-foot reptile with a head and jaws the size of ‘well, big.
More than 100 curious and fascinated folk showed up for a two-hour seminar Saturday put on by the Department of Natural Resources at the Airport Campus of Midlands Technical College.
The seminar was a one-stop tutorial in all the facets of preparing for an alligator hunt, including licensing requirements, equipment options for snagging a 13-footer while in a boat, safety equipment, and killing and gutting a gator.
Nearly 3,800 people from 36 states and Puerto Rico applied for a permit to hunt gator in S.C. waterways this year, according to Jay Butfiloski, a DNR wildlife biologist. That's up 50 applications over last year. A lottery narrowed the field to 1,200.
Wildlife experts estimate there are 100,000 alligators in South Carolina, the bulk of them south of a line from I-20 in Aiken County, up to Kershaw County, then east to Chesterfield County.
Extremely powerful, with cat-like quickness from the snap of their heads to the crushing whip of their tails, alligators can be dangerous, and they weigh hundreds of pounds.
As an example, Matherly brought a black, 7-foot reptile to the seminar in West Columbia, and dozens gathered around to take a look.
Though the gator's mouth was taped shut and his feet were bound together, blood streamed down Matherly's left forearm from a gash left there as he removed the creature from the bed of his pick up truck.
Matherly made the point that a large gator captured in the water can take hours to draw near enough to a boat for the hunter to actually kill it ” and sometimes the reptile's powerful tail still can snap after death, causing injury.
Butfiloski said he knows of no reported injuries in the state associated with alligator hunting so far.
But his presentation was laced with big doses of the reality that comes to bear when man goes after gator. For instance, harpooning is the favored method of capturing one of the thrashing reptiles, though other methods such as snaring and snatch-hooking may also be used, with these warnings:
``Because alligator hunting is a (contact) sport, we encourage you to go with some people. It's just gonna be safer that way,'' Butfiloski said.
Or, ``I promise you, when you get a gator boat-side, it's gonna be chaos.''
And, ``Even your big friend will get antsy when the gator gets close,'' he told the crowd.
One other: ``A gator can roll up like a yo-yo right into your boat,'' Butfiloski said.
An alligator cannot be killed, or ``dispatched'' in DNR lingo, until it is first captured or restrained.
The agents explained the best way to ``dispatch'' the reptile is by cutting the two main arteries along the alligator's spine, just between the back of the skull and the beginning of the neck.
Alligators cannot be shot by gunfire in the water, except by a licensed hunter during hunting season, and then only after the reptile is captured. Handguns are the only firearms permissible for use in the kill.
Hunters can eat their catch, but they cannot sell the meat in South Carolina. The hides can be sold in the Palmetto State, however, and a number of uses can be made of them, including shoes, purses, bags and rugs.
DNR has strict requirements that any alligator that is captured must be reported within five days, and hunters must make a report of their hunting season to DNR by Dec. 1, even if they fail to catch anything, under penalty of exclusion from the next year's lottery.
A small cottage industry is springing up around the sport that includes alligator ``go-getters,'' those who contract to go out and remove unwanted gators from driveways, roads, golf courses and other places, as man meets gator in the crush for territory.
Ron Russell, a wildlife manager for 20 years, is a gator go-getter who contracts with DNR for $100 per removal. He said gators interact with humans most often when they are not able to find the cover they seek before daybreak.
Rick Austin of Columbia is a 27-year-old Citadel graduate who got one of the 1,200 or so licenses to hunt alligators in 2010. He captured his first alligator last year, a 91/2 -footer at Awendaw, using a cross bow. He said he makes Christmas gifts for his family and friends out the hides.
He defends the sport; and the reptiles.
``Hunting is a great conservation method, without which the population would go unchecked,'' he said. ``We're not looking to decimate the alligators. We want them here for years to come.''
Getting ready for alligator season in S.C

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]