Man Kills Gigantic Gator After Livestock Goes Missing
on Feb 01, 2022
According to Doug Borries, a professional hunting guide in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, he was called out to travel to a South Florida ranch to hunt down an alligator after a rancher said that many of his livestock mysteriously went missing.
The South Florida private property where the gator was suspected to be was near the city of Okeechobee in Okeechobee County.
“It had been suspected of eating some of the local livestock around the lake and was considered a threat,” Doug said, according to the Sun Herald.
The rancher said it had been “feasting” on his calves.
Doug laid down flat on top of the lake levee as he waited for the creature to make an appearance and eventually spotted it on an island just before daylight.
He aimed at the gator with his rifle from about 321 yards away and fired off a single shot hitting it directly above its eyes.
“I had no idea the magnitude of how big his body was until we pulled him completely out of the lake,” Doug said.
Doug took photos with it and, no wonder the rancher’s calves were going missing, it was nearly three times Doug’s height, including the tail.
The gator was an impressive 13-foot, 4-inches, and weighed 905 pounds.
“An absolute beast,” Doug said.
The alligator was believed to be about 80 years old, according to an elderly local who said he had seen it in the lake all of his life.
However, the bigger it got, the more concerned the family living on the property became for their safety. They are very relieved now that it has been removed.
Doug said that the modern-day monster carcass did not go to waste, the meat was processed out for eating and he is having “a full life-size mount” made of the hide and skull to add to his collection.
According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the alligator was only a foot short of a state record in Florida which is 14 feet, 3.5 inches, caught in Lake Washington in Brevard County.
The record for the heaviest gator is 1,043 pounds for a 13-foot, 10.5-inch male killed in Alachua County’s Orange Lake.
