Hunting alligators controls populations and provides highly valued meat and skins.
Ask most people what their fondest childhood memory of time spent in Florida is, and chances are they’re going to say going to Disney World. Not me. It was the first time I saw an alligator. I remember the experience vividly. It might as well have been an alien.
It happened in my Uncle Chet’s yard, which backs up to a canal in the town of Okeechobee. For a kid from Indiana, coming so close to a living dinosaur left me mesmerized. The 6-footer was casually sunning itself right next to Chet’s boat dock. From which he caught a bluegill and fed it to the gator. I wish I had a picture of my face with eyes like an owl and mouth hanging open.
Thirty years later, I hunted alligators in Louisiana. Being up close and personal with alligators left me wishing for more. Now, they’re heavily populated in Arkansas, just one state south of where I live in Missouri. If current climate trends continue, I expect we’ll have alligators here at home in the not too distant future.
Arkansas hunters took 181 alligators from the sloughs and swamps of The Natural State this season. While this number falls short of last year’s record of 202 alligators taken, it indicates the overall upward trend continues in what is still a relatively new opportunity for hunters.
Amanda Bryant, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Herpetologist, said she was pleased with the healthy harvest, particularly the hunt’s higher-than-normal success rate.
“Typically, we see about one-third of public land tags filled, but this year we had 54% success rate on public land,” Bryant said. “And 96% of the private land quota was filled.”
Alligator hunting is by permit only in Arkansas. The AGFC issued 50 public hunting permits through a public draw system. Hunting is only allowed on certain Wildlife Management Areas, lakes and rivers. Private land opportunities significantly outnumber those on public land.
“Most unfilled alligator tags are because people hold out for a larger alligator than what they’re seeing, but maybe some of the forecasted rain had people more willing to take a little smaller alligator,” Bryant said. “Then the last weekend turned out pretty nice after all, and we continued to see decent numbers taken throughout the end of the season.”
Cody Gourley of Amity took massive 12-foot, 6-inch gator from Millwood Lake. It was nearly the size of the 14-foot boat he was hunting from. The small craft allowed him to reach backwaters others couldn’t.
“When the gator came up and I saw just how big it was, I was shocked,” Gourley said. “We couldn’t even get it in the boat, so we had to float it beside us as we made our way back to the ramp. It was unlike any hunt I’ve ever been on.”
Biologists have heard from some local anglers that they are concerned the alligator population in Millwood is becoming too large. The harvest on the lake should help.
“We had eight public tags for Millwood this year, and six of those were filled.” Bryant said. “It’s great to see so many of the tags being filled here, and hopefully it’s a step toward reducing the perception of human-wildlife conflict in this area.”
More and more residents in Arkansas are becoming aware of the growing alligator population. Some of them are not too excited about it and consider the ancient animals a nuisance.
“We see a strong relationship between the added harvest opportunity and lower nuisance calls,” Bryant said. “Some of it may be because people are more accustomed to seeing alligators now than they did 20 to 30 years ago, but a lot has to do with the private land hunt enabling landowners to handle the nuisance alligator on their own during the hunt.”
This year, Alligator Management Zone 1 (southwest Arkansas) and AMZ 3 (southeast Arkansas) tied for the most alligators harvested.
The northern most reaches of Zone 3 along the Mississippi River in Phillips County is only approximately 100 miles south of the Missouri state line in Bootheel. If I were an angler or duck hunter frequenting the swamps around Homersville, I’d keep my head on a swivel for an alligator encounter.
See you down the trail…
Brandon Butler writes an outdoors column for The Republic. Send comments to [email protected]. For more Driftwood Outdoors, check out the podcast on www.driftwoodoutdoors.com or anywhere podcasts are streamed.
