Posted on 03/06/2019 2:02:18 PM PST by Red Badger
A roughly 13-foot, 700-pound alligator was recently found in an irrigation ditch, officials with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources said this week.
The massive reptile was found in the ditch near Lake Blackshear, Melissa Cummings, a spokeswoman for the Georgia DNR, told Fox News on Saturday.
“It’s a testament to Georgia’s alligator-management program that alligators can grow to this size,” she said, separately telling First Coast News that "the only way these animals get this large is by avoiding humans."
The animal’s size apparently led many who saw its picture on social media to think the image was a “hoax.” But Brent Howze, the wildlife biologist who is seen crouching behind the reptile in the photo, said otherwise.
“Apparently a lot of people think it’s fake, but I can assure you that it is not,” he told the Cordele Dispatch. “I’m the one in the picture, and you can probably tell that I didn’t get too close to it.”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
More than I can afford!....................
My first tour as a USAF officer was at Moody AFB near Valdosta, GA, affectionately known as “Moody by the Swamp.” Plenty of gators in those swamps, and in the small lake off the end of the runway that served as an on-base recreation area. No swimming allowed (for obvious reasons), but you could fish and compete against the gators for crappie and bass—a losing proposition, at best.
At the time (late 80s) Moody was an F-4 base, converting to the F-16. One summer day, an eight-foot gator decided he’d had enough of the lake, climbed out, strolled across the perimeter road and onto the outer edge of the aircraft ramp. He found a shady spot beneath the wing of a Phantom and decided to rest a spell. When the crew chiefs, pilot and WSO arrived to launch the jet for a training mission, the gator was not very happy, and chased the airmen away. Security forces arrived on the scene and proposed shooting the critter, but gators were still a protected species in those days, so the idea was rejected.
Ultimately, a state fish and wildlife crew were summoned and they captured the gator. The crew shifted to another jet and the mission went off on schedule. The gator was moved to Grassy Pond, the larger, off-base recreation area that was home to an even bigger reptile population. And since alligators can live up to 50 years (or longer) he could still be at Grassy Pond.
I’m here about a mile from Hurlburt Field runway, as the crow flies, in Ft. Walton Beach. We have gators here as well..................
I believe Special Forces do a lot of training there and at Eglin AFB.
From the article:
“After the gator was removed from the ditch, it appeared to have old gunshot wounds on its body and was determined to be in poor health, Cummings said. It was ultimately euthanized.”
Absolutely tragic that this magnificent gator who’d apparently caused no trouble whatsoever had to be euthanized. They could have taken him to a bigger swamp. I think.
No, these alligators get this large by dumb human beings banning or severely limiting the hunting of them.
Gator country. https://youtu.be/PTR13MV4fqc
They eat people.
“”the only way these animals get this large is by avoiding humans.”
Huh? I thought they get that large by EATING humans..
I was in the Philippines 4 years ago and traveled to this coastal village near Cebu. They had this friggin’ large alligator or croc and there were 25 kids sitting on the damn thing with just a cloth wrapped around the jaws and tail..
I take it your family doesn’t live in gator country...
I saw a 13-foot gator at the Okefenokee Swamp once. That’s a lot of alligator. It really is startling to see a creature that large. It seems unnatural. There was no fence, but they keep her well fed. They advised me not to get too close and I acknowledge that that would not be a concern.
I grew up in Valdosta. Dad was a retired Navy officer, so we went to the exchange on Moody all the time. Phantoms flew over the house just about every day.
I guess that's why it was so small and sickly. Wonder how big it would have been if it had been healthy.
A few years ago it was dry and they had a lot of wildfires in the Okefenokee.
“.... It was ultimately euthanized.”
And is now a pair of boots for Dad and a purse for Mom.
More likely the only way these animals get this large is by avoiding eating humans.
Need to have a few thousand of these returned to nature just south of the U.S. border... Then they could get really large...
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