Texas got screwed by New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
Posted on 11/05/2024 1:18:35 PM PST by Red Badger
Alligators are one of the most dangerous animals in the US. The states that have the most attacks are Louisiana and Florida given the population of alligators located there. However, as alligators have begun to migrate to places in Tennessee and have even been located in Lake Eerie, that may change. Even the biggest alligator ever found was located in a surprising state, not Louisiana and Florida, showing that states that may never have dealt with an alligator population may have no choice but to do so in the future.
Louisiana and Florida each have more than one million alligators living in and around the states. While alligators will attack humans, an interesting fact about alligators is that they are not naturally aggressive towards humans. Alligators would prefer to mind their own business and hunt animals to their liking.
However, some alligators become a nuisance and require being placed in a sanctuary or alligator haven to live out their lives in a controlled version of the wild. But, given the large numbers of alligators, most states allow them to be hunted with a license, which is how one Alabama alligator made the record books as being the largest alligator ever found.
Biggest Alligator Ever Found Was In Alabama, Not Florida Or Louisiana
The Stokes alligator was located in Alabama in 2014 on the Alabama River
Louisiana and Florida have the largest population of alligators in the US. Consequently, it would be anticipated that the largest alligators would be located in one of these two states. While there have been some sizable alligators found in these two states, the biggest alligators in the Sunshine State and the Pelican State, could not compare to the massive alligator found in Alabama.
On August 16, 2014, Mandy Stokes, her husband, John, and her brother-in-law, Kevin Jenkins, set out to hunt for an alligator on the Alabama River. The trio borrowed a 17-foot aluminum boat for their adventure on the water.
While Stokes was an avid deer and hog hunter, this was the first alligator she had hunted for. Call it beginner's luck or Stokes wearing the right perfume to attract the alligators, Stokes would hold the record for finding the largest alligator by the end of the evening.
Around 10:45 PM, an alligator was hooked on the hunting line. Despite eventually being "hooked in multiple places," Stokes, her husband, and Jenkins could not bring the alligator to the surface to kill it.
The alligator stayed on the bottom of the slough where he was captured for over an hour and a half after nearly capsizing the aluminum boat following a ricocheted bullet shot by Stokes. It looked like the hunting might be over for the night, and according to Stokes, there was a discussion about cutting the lines and letting the alligator go.
Ultimately, the trio stayed the course and got the opportunity they were looking for when the alligator's head broke the water's surface. He was discharged on the spot and killed instantly. That was when Stokes got the first look at the size of the alligator she had captured and killed.
How Large The Alligator Was Given the size of the alligator, he could not be pulled into the aluminum boat. He instead had to be towed back. It was not until the alligator made it to dry land that his remarkable size was recognized.
The alligator was 15 feet 9 inches long and weighed in at 1,011.5 pounds, according to Field & Stream. These measurements were enough to give Stokes the Safari Club International title of having found the largest alligator in history in the US. The previous record was held by a 14-foot 8-inch alligator located in Texas in 2008.
Where The Stokes Alligator Can Be Seen Today, the alligator is known as the Stokes alligator.
The alligator was taken to the taxidermist to be preserved. When this happened, according to Field & Stream, the taxidermist noted some massive meals in the alligator's stomach, which included:
Two squirrels
One duck
One three-year-old doe
Part of a cow or calf
The Stokes alligator was doing well in and around the slough where he lived. Just how far he traveled for his food is unknown.
Those who want to see the Stokes alligator can visit him at the Montgomery Zoo in Alabama. There, visitors can see just how massive a creature the Stokes alligator was in his prime.
Since the Stokes alligator was discovered in 2014, there have been several alligators found that have come close to breaking the SCI record. However, none has managed to do so yet.
The alligators with honorable mention for being some of the largest in the US include:
Alligator-------------Location------Date-----Weight And Length
Big Tex---------------Texas---------2019-----1,000 pounds / 13 feet 8 inches
Cattle farm alligator--Florida------2016-----800 pounds / Just under 15 feet
Cattle farm alligator--Florida------2023-----Unknown / 12 feet 2 inches
With the Stokes alligator at the top of how large male alligators can get in the wild, it is unlikely that another one of its size will be located anytime soon. When and if this happens, however, the massive creature will be a sight to behold indeed.
Exactly. It’s not surprising that an alligator can walk across the state line.
Yep.
If I were a big, ol’ boy, gator, I’d probably look to hang in ‘Bama too.
Bring it home & put it in the bathtub to grow some more.
I was just lamenting the fact Alabama doesn’t have the rest of the land below it. It wasn’t a serious statement about the history. Kind of tongue in cheek.
I remember in the 60s and early 70s when NYCity sewer workers were reporting them flushed into the system, along with parinas and other exotic species not native to the region. I think a lot of this migration is at the hands of people who turned them lose after getting them in pet stores or visiting distance lands/locations.
Donald Woods and his buddies were determined to catch a big gator on the opening night of Mississippi’s alligator hunting season. By early the next morning they had done just that. In fact, Woods and his crew landed a massive alligator that measured an official 14 feet, 3 inches and weighed 802.5 pounds. It’s the longest alligator ever caught on record in the state of Mississippi, beating the previous record by more than two inches.
—— I remembered this recent catch that was not mentioned in the article.
Spill Czech approved this.
LOL, I meant to say Alabama has alligators too. I m running out of steam as I woke up about 3 A.M. so that I could get ready to go vote by 6 A.M. when my poling station opened.
Man stumbles upon massive Alligator whilst out hiking
https://x.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1790324410785652985
If that hiker were a few seconds faster he would have been eaten by the gator.
“Mississippi and Alabama were made states by 1819. That included those parts of West Florida the Spanish acknowledged as already annexed by the USA (Biloxi Bay and Mobile Bay).”
LOL! They were run out by our military!
Nope. We really didn’t have a top-down military in the Southwest yet. Thay had to wait for General Andrew Jackson to arrive after Horseshoe Bend, Alabama in 1814. The Republic of West Florida was found by American settlers, not soldiers. The people took it four years ahead of the Army’s arrival.
Read up some history, my dude:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_West_Florida
There was an influx of Americans into West Florida in the early years of the 19th century. The population of the Baton Rouge District was almost exclusively Anglo-American with a substantial number of Tory immigrants of the revolutionary period. Some of the Americans were land speculators eager to profit should the territory join the U.S.
During the decade after 1803, the U.S. southern border was the scene of many minor frontier events that involved diplomatic relations with Britain, France and Spain. In order to resolve the problems along that border and gain control of ports for commerce, the U.S. desired to possess all territory east of the Mississippi.
West Florida occupied the land from the Mississippi River to beyond the Mobile River and also separated the United States’ Orleans and Mississippi territories. (New Orleans and West Florida had been the prime U.S. desires in the negotiations with Napoleon that resulted instead in the Louisiana Purchase.)
In West Florida, from June to September 1810, many secret meetings, as well as three openly held conventions, of those who resented Spanish rule and the new district governor, Carlos de Hault de Lassus, took place in the Baton Rouge District. Out of those meetings grew the West Florida rebellion and the establishment of the independent Republic of West Florida. Its capital was located at St. Francisville, in present-day Louisiana on a bluff along the Mississippi River.
LOL! Why did you START your wiki quote right AFTER the pertinent part?
Why is that funny? What IS the pertinent part?
Nowhere in the entire article does it say US government soldiers/the Military went and took over the land.
The US claimed it as part of Louisiana, and a bunch of American settlers moved in. The same bunch of settlers declared a rebellion, took it, and then joined the union.
” The Republic of West Florida was found by American settlers, not soldiers. “
Irrelevant.
“The US claimed it as part of Louisiana, and a bunch of American settlers moved in. The same bunch of settlers declared a rebellion, took it, and then joined the union.”
What is it? I was just discussing the capture of the land west of Perdido Bay. You are referring to the whole of Wst Florida and throwing in East Florida.
I see. The parts West of Perdido, Mobile Bay and Biloxi Back Bay, were given to Alabama and Mississippi respectively, not by some shady deal to screw Florida, which is what you first said.
THAT is what I was replying to.
When Florida became a territory in 1820, should they have taken Alabama and Mississippi’s land back? No. THAT would have been shady.
Texas got screwed by New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
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