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POST AND COURIER (Charleston, S Carolina) 22 February 06 Alligatorzilla caught - by camera: Author snaps photos of giant bull gator seen by ferry operator on Bull's Island (Chris Dixon)
Armed with only a digital camera, Bob Raynor sailed out to Bull's Island last Friday to hunt for Alligatorzilla.
Aided by gorgeous sunny weather, the 55-year-old author of the book "Exploring Bull Island" hiked north to Jack's Creek. There, he found a huge bull alligator that he had never seen in his many expeditions through the island's swamps and forests.
Raynor said he had only become aware of Alligatorzilla when The Post and Courier ran an article citing Bull's Island Ferry operator Chris Crolley's assertion that the reptile might be a state record. While a January excursion yielded no Alligatorzilla, Crolley bravely slogged out to stake a four-foot measuring stick into the ground on the bank where the animal typically soaks in the sun.
"I went up on the berm," Raynor said, "and looked straight across the water at a big gator. I thought that was him, but at that point, I looked over to the right and saw the real one. There was no doubt."
Raynor then fired off a number of pictures of the mammoth reptile and settled down for lunch. A poorly swallowed piece of sandwich led to a bout of loud coughing that temporarily sent the animal into the water. But when Alligatorzilla returned, Raynor realized that the beast was right by Crolley's stick. So he shot some more photos.
Arriving home, Raynor zoomed in on his images with his computer with hopes of measuring the gator. While he agreed that his methods were unscientific, a cut and paste operation provided an estimate of as much as 17 feet long. Not only would this be a state record, but it would put Alligatorzilla close to the national record, a 19-foot 2-inch monster killed decades ago in Louisiana.
Photos were e-mailed to Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge manager Matt Connolly and state Department of Natural Resources biologist Tom Murphy on Tuesday. Connolly said the brute was enormous and might be as long as 15 feet. Murphy agreed Alligatorzilla was impressive, but said he thought the 13-foot range was the limit.
Murphy added that the smiling reptile's disproportionately large head meant that he was a decades old survivor of Hurricane Hugo and was likely the undisputed king of Bull's Island. 'But using the measurements on the stick,' he said, 'it just comes out too long for what the animal looks like.'
Crolley has taken his share of good-natured ribbing for his wild-eyed estimates of Alligatorzilla's size. But in thousands of trips to the island, he said he has never seen a larger gator and he felt somewhat vindicated with Raynor's photos. "I thought that maybe instead of a stick in the ground, I'd hang a 20-foot piece of line or flagging in the trees above him," he said. "But now that the weather's getting warmer, I'm not real anxious to wade through his native habitat."
Alligatorzilla caught
