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CABOT STAR HERALD (Arkansas) 09 November 05 Wildlife officials bag trophy gator (John N. Felsher)
Mellwood: A team of state biologists, including Cabot High School graduate David Covington, bagged one of the largest alligators ever killed in Arkansas during modern times.
Members of a hunting club in Phillips County near Mellwood reported seeing a large alligator living in a 50-acre private reservoir on their land and wanted it removed for safety reasons. Since state and federal laws protect alligators in Arkansas, the sportsmen could not act on their own. Therefore, they called the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for help.
“This alligator got too big and the landowners wanted it out of their reservoir,” said Wayne Kelley, an AGFC biologist. “Children fish in that reservoir. Pets go into the water. We decided to take this one out for safety reasons.”
Typically, commission officials responding to reports of “nuisance” alligators try to capture and relocate the offending animal. To do this, they venture into the lair of the beast at night, armed with spotlights and a lasso device on a long pole.
At night, the eyes of an alligator reflect pink or red, depending upon the intensity of the light hitting it. The more powerful the beam of light, the brighter red an alligator’s eyes shine. Two eyes reflecting red dots make alligators easy to spot at night.
However, as Covington, Jason Honey and Kelley discovered, spotting a large alligator and catching one could mean two different things.
Stealthy ambush predators, alligators usually only stick the tops of their heads or their eyes and nostrils above the water. Quietly, they submerge, disappearing when approached. In cool water, an alligator can hold its breath and remain submerged for up to two hours, Kelley said. With too much thick vegetation choking the reservoir, the biologists could not approach close enough to lasso the animal. Therefore, they returned the next day armed with a rifle instead of a rope.
“The aquatic vegetation was so thick that we couldn’t get within 100 yards of it,” Kelley said. “We were afraid it might hurt someone or endanger someone’s pet, so we decided to shoot it.”
The ancient reptile stretched 12 feet, 7 inches. It weighed more than 520 pounds. Game and fish officials brought it to a taxidermist to create a stuffed display for their office.
“That’s one of the biggest alligators I’ve ever heard of coming out of Arkansas,” said Kelly Erwin, an AGFC reptile expert. “It was about the average maximum size for a bull alligator in Arkansas, but they sometimes reach more than 14 feet long.”
The largest alligator on record measured 19 feet, two inches long. Early in the 20th century, E.A. McIlhenny of Tabasco pepper sauce fame killed the huge alligator near his home on Avery Island in the marshes of south Louisiana. He estimated the length of the giant reptile by using his rifle as a measuring stick.
Alligators by the millions once roamed the swamps and marshes of the southeastern United States from Arkansas to North Carolina and all along the Gulf Coast. In the 1920s, alligator hide boots, shoes, wallets, luggage and other items became fashionable. Considering alligators vermin slated for extermination, people often killed them on sight. By the 1950s, alligators became rare or extinct throughout much of their original range. In 1967, the federal government declared them endangered, but most states had already outlawed alligator harvests. By the early 1970s, alligators became common enough in southwestern Louisiana to permit a limited harvest again. In the late 1970s, Louisiana opened a tightly controlled, statewide harvest season. Now with the big reptiles inhabiting nearly every acre of suitable habitat in Louisiana, the sale of alligator hides, meat and such curios as skulls, teeth and claws create a multi-million dollar industry. The well-regulated season usually takes place every September.
In Arkansas, alligators nearly disappeared except for a remnant native population in the extreme southwestern corner of the state between Texarkana and Hope. From 1972 through 1984, the state imported about 2,800 alligators from Louisiana and released them into suitable habitat such as lowland swamps, lakes, rivers and other wetlands, Erwin said.
Today, several thousand alligators thrive in most of southern and eastern Arkansas all the way to the edges of the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains. They live along the Arkansas River from Russellville eastward to the Mississippi River. The counties along the Mississippi River from Jonesboro south hold the largest alligator population in the state.
“The Arkansas alligator population is stable,” Erwin said. “They are fully protected throughout the state. When we receive complains of nuisance alligators, we check them out. If they are where alligators are supposed to live and doing what alligators do we usually just leave them alone. If they become a threat to people or property, we remove them, but alligators are usually not aggressive toward people.”
The word “alligator” comes from the Spanish phrase, “el lagarto,” meaning “the lizard,” the term early explorers gave the large North American crocodilians. Alligators resemble crocodiles, including the rare American crocodile of south Florida. However, a crocodile’s nose nearly comes to a point. An alligator sports a wide, blunt head. Both use powerful jaws and teeth to crush or rip apart prey.
If anyone wants to report a nuisance alligator, that person should call the nearest AGFC regional office. For Lonoke and Pulaski counties, call (877) 470-3650.
Wildlife officials bag trophy gator

You have to love state game and fish agencies....lets just shoot it and stuff it and put it in the office..........

......so is this where you guys hang out all the time?

Nice to see your posts!!

Scott Ballard

LOL

Well not ALL the time Scott.....

but milksnake just don't have the thecodont dentition we love so much!

......acrodont and pleurodont is where it's at!!

Most readers are probably scratching their heads by now

Scott

Scott
Certainly this is a sign. I've thought of you a bunch in the last couple of weeks. Your card is laying on the table by my computer. I keep thinking I have to go make a cd. But everytime I go into town, I forget.
I'm going to make a concerted effort.
Of course then the cd will sit for 2 months until I go to the post office.
Tell your wife her courage will be rewarded documentation is forthcoming.
Danny Conner
Any concilation Riley has'nt received his cd either.

......you can always just hand it to me next August, or have you had enough of southern Illinois?

Scott