An American hunter told the BBC how he shot a 360-kilogram alligator that was attempting to kill the cattle of his farm.
According to professional hunter Lee Lightsey, the 4.5-meter long beast was one of the largest he had seen in 18 years, and it took a tractor to move it.
Mr Lightsay and game manager Blake Godwin found the alligator on Saturday near the cattle-led pond. When the creature came to the surface at a distance of about 6 meters from them, the hunters shot him.
“Although this animal is huge, I was not very surprised. Over the past 20 years, we have seen animals that were only slightly smaller. But what really caught our attention was his possible involvement in the extermination of cattle on my farm, because we found body parts mutilated by this monster in the water,”said Lightsey. Mr. Lightsey's company organizes hunting for crocodiles, boars and turkeys. The largest alligator previously killed was just over 4 meters long. A license to shoot an alligator over 4 meters costs 10,000 dollars, and a license for 3–4 meters - 4,500 dollars. A powerful rifle is used as a weapon.
“We kill them, but we try not to injure them so that they do not experience dying. Hundreds of alligators from 3 to 4 meters long live here, although 4-meter ones are usually found only once a year,”the hunter noted.
American alligators are found in the southeastern United States, Florida and Louisiana.
Each population contains over a million individuals.
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South Florida has a reputation for being the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles live side by side in freshwater environments such as rivers, lakes, and swamps.