Alligator Hunting In Florida

Looking to hunt for the Florida Alligator? We can help you find that gator. We hunt the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee for alligators. Airboats are the best way to guide hunters to their trophy. Hunts are reasonable in price and the Gators are nice.

 The alligators found in Florida are the American variety. There are 2 species of gators in the world. The other is the Chinese alligator. Growing more than 19 feet they can weigh over 1000 pounds. Once an endangered species, the Alligator has bounced back to being overpopulated in many areas. There are over 3 million gators living in the wild, which has caused unfortunate encounters with humans. Hunting has proven to be the most beneficial and economic means to control the population of the American Alligator. These 3 million alligators can be found in the south east United States.

Alligators will eat anything. When they are young they will eat small fish, frogs, and insects. As they grow in size their food grows in size. Adults will eat prey as large as cattle. The Alligators diet will differ in different areas but basically will eat anything that is available.

Alligators are prolific breeders. Females will lay up to 50 eggs. There nest are built up out of the water and are made of vegetation. When the vegetation begins to decay it will give off heat. If the temperature of the nest is more than 90 degrees F. the hatchlings will be all males. when the temperature of the nest is below 86 deg.F. the entire hatch will be females. Temperatures that are in between will produce males and females. The eggs will take 2 months to incubate and the mother will guard the nest the entire time. when the young emerge from the nest the mother will continue to protect the babies until they eventually wander away from the mother gator. The mother alligator will come and collect a wayward youngster when she hears his distress calls. Hunters will use this distress call to sometimes lure a gator in close. The alligators biggest enemy is other alligators. The larger ones will eat the smaller ones without hesitation. The survival rate of baby alligators is very low. Once they reach a couple years old they have learned to avoid their larger relatives and the odds of survival go up exponentially. Birds, fish, otters, raccoons, snakes, and other animals will all feed on the little hatchlings. 

Hunting Gators in Florida has become a popular sport for Floridians and out of state hunters. Gators are harvested for their exquisite leather hides and for their tasty  white meat. The primary method for hunting alligators in Florida is harpooning them at night. Hunters will run the swamps of the Everglades in airboats equipped with bright spot lights. The reflective lens in the back of an alligator's eye which helps him see in the dark, will light up like a red traffic light when a spot light is shined on them. The hunter will then try and get close enough to harpoon the gator. After harpooning the alligator the tip of the harpoon detaches from the harpoon and the line that is attached to this tip is then held by hand and the alligator is wrestled to the boat. The gator is then shot once it is subdued along side of the boat. Guns are not permitted when hunting gators in Florida so a bangstick is used to shoot the gator. A bangstick shoots a normal bullet from a cylinder attached to the end of a long pole or stick. The hunt is over when the sun rises. Hunters are allowed 2 alligators each in Florida. Hunting alligators is expressive. A license will cost a Florida resident 250 dollars and a non resident will pay 1000 dollars for a license. Lake Okeechobee is the largest fresh water lake in Florida and is the most densely populated by alligators in the state. This lake is the most popular hunting area in the sunshine state.

Alligator farming in Florida has been a lucrative business. Even when the Alligator was still protected, farms were allowed to raise them for profit. Farms would collect hatchlings from the wild and raise them in captivity and then a percentage of their juvenile gators would have to be returned to the wild. This was very helpful in restoring the natural population of alligators to the wild. As a result of hunting the population has increased. Hunters are harvesting the biggest alligators they can find resulting in fewer large gators eating the smaller ones. The survival rate of the babies has increased since hunting has been allowed.
  In 1987 the alligator was removed from the endangered species list.
The population has increased more than when the gators were protected. The population has to be controlled, therefore hunting alligators is a necessary tool. Humans and Alligators don't mix.There have been 40 deaths recorded in Florida's breif history. There have been countless attacks on Humans by gators. The bite isn't what kills. It is the bacteria delivered with the bite that is lethal. You can visit Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commission's website for more information on Alligator hunting in Florida