A family in Alabama managed to capture a huge alligator over the weekend. The Stokes family struggled to bring the gator in for five hours and it took all five of them to kill the massive creature.
The 15-foot gator was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery. The family used large hooks to stab the gator and help bring it to land and eventually had to shoot it in the head to kill it.
The alligator weighed over 1,000 pounds and is the new state record. It was so heavy that it even broke the winch that biologists use to weigh large gators. The alligator had to eventually be weighed using a backhoe and scale.
The family knew they had killed something huge, but were surprised to find out just how much the gator really weighed.
“We give all the glory to God. Ten men couldn’t have done what we did,” John Stokes said.
Hunters snag 1K-pound alligator, an Alabama record: http://t.co/jpZlk4mtXy pic.twitter.com/RxRCmel048
— Local 12/WKRC-TV (@Local12) August 19, 2014
The family said that during their five hour fight with the gator, they thought they were going to lose it several times.
Although several family members had hooked the gator to bring it close to them, they weren’t able to pull it up out of the water enough to get a clear shot.
Alabama hunters nab a 1,000 pound alligator measuring 15 feet long. http://t.co/Ox1X3U0ZTb pic.twitter.com/TRGy3rgUcG
— News4JAX (@wjxt4) August 18, 2014
The easiest way to kill a gator is by shooting it directly behind the eyes. Mandy Stokes said that she tried to shoot the gator several times before she finally managed to kill it.
“All it did was make this gator mad,” Mandy Stokes said. “Fear had taken hold at this point.”
While many people in Alabama eat alligator meat and use the hide to make numerous products, the proud Stokes family said that they plan to take their gator to the taxidermy shop but are not sure what they will do with it afterwards.
What would you do with a 1,000 pound stuffed alligator?
Image via Wikimedia Commons