Just when we stop talking about sharks, a group of locals catch another predator in the area. Taylor Douglas and his friends caught an alligator measuring 12 feet 9 inches and weighing 524 pounds in Mobile County. The group hunted for three nights after receiving one of 50 harvest permits granted to alligator hunters in Alabama’s Coastal Management area.

While the near 13 foot alligator is large it is still short of the State record. The largest alligator ever found in Alabama was 15 feet 9 inches long and weighed 1,011.5 pounds! According to the Wildlife Learning Museum, the largest alligator legally hunted in Alabama. Hunter Mandy Stokes and her crew including her husband, brother-in-law, and his two teenage kids were all a part of the epic hunt. The giant alligator was found in the Alabama River, northwest of Montgomery. The crew wrestled the alligator for five hours before subduing it and bringing it in. They hauled it to a local state park where they got it officially measured and weighed. The alligator was so big that it broke the winch that was built to hoist the alligator up.

Alabama is home to 70,000 alligators, which live in its lakes, rivers, and swamps, mostly confined to the state’s southern half although their range seems to be advancing slowly yet surely northwards.

Alligator season for Baldwin and Mobile counties will end on August 20th.