'We're gonna need a bigger boat': Gator hunters break TWO state records with monster catches
on the same day including a 727lb reptile hauled in by a UPS worker
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First-timer has victory snatched from her hours after catching 723.5lb alligator
Limited season opens as successful conservation program brings fearsome reptiles back from brink
of extinction
4 September 2013
daily mail
Within a few hours of alligator hunting season opening, the record for the heaviest and longest reptiles to
be caught in Mississippi had been set and broken several times. The first record was set early on Sunday,
with a 10ft reptile, weighing 295.3lb, which took the heaviest and longest titles for a female alligator. Just a
few hours later however, first-time hunter Beth Trammell, of Madison, helped haul in a 723.5lb male
alligator. Her catch broke the state record, but only for a few hours.
Monster catch: Dustin Bockman with his record-breaking 727lb alligator
Later in the day UPS worker Dustin Bockman was part of a three-man team who caught a 13ft long, 727lb
beast from the Mississippi. 'We're going to cook it for sure,' he told Gulf Live. 'There's plenty for me and
everybody else.' Alligators had nearly been hunted to extinction in Mississippi in the 1960s but a successful
conservation program now means the state needs controlled hunting of the reptiles. It offers permits to a
select number of people each year, who are able to hunt in public waters from August 30 to September 9. It
took Mr Bockman, his brother and a friend, nearly 12 hours to catch the huge gator. After two hours of
trailing it, they got close enough to shoot it with a crossbow, which is where the fight between man and
beast began, the Clarion-Ledger reported. 'He would go to the bottom and sit like a log. You couldn’t do
nothing with him,' Mr Bockman said. Compared to what came next, reeling the 727lb beast in was
nothing.
Haul: Beth Trammell and her
hunting party held the record for the
heaviest alligator for a couple of
hours on Sunday
Giant: Three records were set as
Mississippi gator season began
After it was dead, the hunters were faced with the dilemma of how to get the carcass in their boat. It took
four hours of tugging before they gave up, and rested their catch on a sandbar as they waited for help. The
three men then waited for more than two hours for reinforcements to arrive. 'Tired, hungry, we’d been
pulling on a 700lb gator for four hours, and we really needed a nap at that point,' Mr Bockman said. As they
made their way back to have it officially weighed and measured, they heard another hunter had caught a
gator weighing more than 700lb and feared their hopes of glory would fade. However, they were soon
declared the record breakers. The story of their catch was echoed by first-time hunter Ms Trammell, and
her team of six, who took more than four hours to catch, kill and tow to shore their 723.5lb beast. When
she first saw their alligator surface, she said: 'Oh my gosh, it's the Loch Ness Monster.' 'It took about four
hours to get it in the boat,' Ms Trammell said. 'We had to flag another boat down to help us out it was so
big.' After taking the record for the heaviest alligator Mr Bockman plans to use its skin to make a gun strap
and a picture frame. Ms Trammell is making arrangements to have her gator butchered for meat. 'I think
my brother-in-law is going to get the head mounted,' she added.
Trophy: The alligators will be eaten and their skin used to make gun straps and picture frames for the
hunters
Mississippi's wildlife management team believe more records could be broken one day soon. 'I expect
we're going to break 14ft one day,' alligator program coordinator Ricky Flynt told WAFB. 'They're long-lived
animals. We know they can live 50 to 60 years in captivity, who knows how long they can live in the wild.'
Caught Giant Alligators Break Records; How Big Do Gators Get?
Posted by Guest Blogger in Weird & Wild on September 3, 2013
newswatch nationalgeographic
Record alligator caught in Mississippi by Dustin Bockman party
The hunting party of Dustin Bockman of Vicksburg, Miss., caught this record-breaking alligator in the Big
Black River near the Mississippi in Claiborne County. It was 13 feet and 6.5 inches (4.13 meters) long and
weighed 727 pounds (330 kilograms). This alligator is now the current weight record for an alligator taken
by a hunter in a Mississippi alligator hunting season. Photograph by Ricky Flynt/Mississippi Wildlife,
Fisheries, and Parks Dept.
Two record-setting heavyweight alligators were killed by hunters in Mississippi this weekend, just three
days into the start of the official gator hunting season. One animal, a male, was 13-feet and 6.5-inches
(4.13 meters) long and weighed 727 pounds (330 kilograms). “When we finally got an arrow in him, it took
us another two hours to get him up close to the boat,” Dustin Bockman, one of the hunters, told the
Associated Press. “He broke all the lines we could get in him. Finally we got a snare on him and pulled him
up high enough and got a shot on him. All in all, it probably took us four-and-a-half hours to actually catch
him from the first time we saw him.” The other gator, caught by hunter Beth Trammell, was also a male and
measured 13-feet and 5.5-inches (4.1-meters) long and weighed 723.5 pounds (328 kilograms). (See “Giant
Crocodile Breaks Size Record.”) Both alligators broke the previous weight record of 697.5 pounds (316
kilograms). Once considered an endangered species, the American alligator population has bounced back in
recent decades and was delisted in 1987. We spoke to Greg Robbins, a senior animal keeper at the Los
Angeles Zoo, to find out more about the species and whether it is normal for them to grow so large.
What did you think of the record-setting alligators caught in Mississippi this weekend?
It’s unusual to find alligators that big now. In the old days, it was fairly common. You’d read books from
back in the day, especially when they first started settling Florida, and some people described alligators as
being bigger. Our largest gator was a male that passed away several years ago. He was under 500 pounds
(227 kilograms), and he was a big gator. But this thing was nearly 300 pounds (136 kilograms) heavier than
ours. It looked like a good-sized alligator. Big alligator caught in Mississippi by Beth Trammell party
The hunting party of Beth Trammell of Madison, Miss., caught an alligator on Sept 1, 2013 in Issaquena
County in the Yazoo Diversion Canal north of Redwood. It was 13 feet 5.5 inches (14.1 meters) long and
weighed 723.5 pounds (328 kilograms). Photograph by Ricky Flynt/Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks
Dept.
How big can American alligators get?
They can continue growing their entire lives. When they’re older, the growth is very minimal. But generally
for alligators and crocodiles, they’ll grow a foot a year for the first five or six years. And then they continue
growing, but it’s usually at a slower rate.
In captivity, people can make that happen faster through diet and feeding them more often.
Are males always bigger than females?
In crocodilians [which includes alligators and their crocodile cousins] males are always bigger than females.
Is it legal to hunt alligators in the U.S.?
American alligators were taken off the endangered species list a few years ago. It kind of shows the success
of the wildlife management that the alligators have come back.
In most of the southern states now, there’s legal hunting and they have tags, kind of like deer hunting
season. They usually have a certain number of tags a year that people apply for and then they can hunt [the
alligators].