Every year about this time when the waters rise the gators start moving.
It's breeding season. We get at least one every year in our pond. They are usually about 2.5 to 3 feet and still have their yellow stripes.
We noticed this one about 2 weeks ago. And we also noticed he was quite bigger than we are used to.
He had made himself quite comfortable. We could go out and take a few steps toward him and the gator would splash right into the pond but...
He would follow us around the pond. One time he actually made a run at Dusty coming straight up out of the water onto land.
Um, fellar's got to go.
We called the Florida Nuisance Alligator hotline and they hooked us up with these licensed trappers. The whole thing took about 5 minutes.
Just before they arrived we had walked around the entire pond several times looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. Well, these folks know their business. They put down a boombox , blasting sounds of baby alligators in trouble. Well, this big gator comes rushing out of the weeds making a bee-line towards the sound. The trapper guy throws a huge treble hook from your average fishing pole and foul snags him. The trapper gal uses a snare on a pole when he reels him close to the bank.
Easy Peasy! Sit on him, wrap up his jaws with electrical tape, remove the hook and they're done!
Aw, he's a beautiful animal.
The guy handles him and tell us it's a male.
Off to the truck to take him to the processing plant. If it were a female they would have taken him to the farm but because it's a male, and males will just fight and kill each other they will have to "harvest" him.
There he is;
All 6 feet and 2 inches!!!!
