A 15-foot, 1,011.5-pound gator harvested by hunters in Alabama has shattered the state record. It is also a new Safari Club International world record.
The tag-holder, Mandy Stokes, of Thomaston, Ala., was hunting with her husband and her brother-in-law Aug. 16 when they killed the monster gator in a small tributary of the Alabama River near Miller’s Ferry Dam, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
The hunters had no idea the gator was in the area when they began their hunt. Once they got the first line into the beast, they fought it for more than four hours before Stokes was able to finish it off with a 20-gauge shotgun.
At the weigh station, Stokes’ gator actually broke the winch that was used to weigh the previous Alabama state record, a 14-foot, 2-inch, 838-pounder that was killed in 2011. Both alligators came from the Alabama River.
In late August, measurers from Safari Club International pulled a tape on Stokes’ alligator to 15-feet, 9-inches, according to Jeff Dute, with AL.com. It bested by 13 inches the old world record, a 14-foot, 8-inch Texas gator killed in 2007.
Alabama is now in its ninth season of Alligator hunts, which began in 2006. Every year, the size of the hunts has increased, and Alabama’s alligator populations appear to be thriving.
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