WW Fall23web

“Surreal
is what
it was...”
The huge gator measured 14 feet 3-inches
from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail and
weighed 802.5 pounds.
Former Alligator Program Coordinator
Ricky Flynt, who worked with the alligator
program for 20 years, joined the new coordinator
Andrew Arnette at the Red Antler
Processing and Hunting Store in Yazoo City
to measure and weigh the massive gator. “The
previous state record alligator was 14-feet and
.75-inches,” said Flynt. “The new state record
gator was only one of three alligators harvested
in our state longer than 14 feet and it went 14-3.”
“After Woods brought the alligator to the
Red Antler Deer Processing Store, one of the
store employees noticed a tag on the gator so
Don called me and sent a picture to find out
the significance of it,” Flynt said. “I could
hardly believe it when they told me about the
tag on the gator. That gator was a nuisance
gator that Tracy Tullos and I caught back in
2007 south of Vicksburg from a small pond. It
was 10-feet ,11-inches long when we caught
and tagged it and relocated it 29 miles up the
Yazoo River.”
Flynt still had all of his alligator data, so he
looked it up and amazingly, that gator had
grown 40-inches in the last 16 years.
“They actually caught the alligator 22½
miles from where we turned it loose,” Flynt
said. “That’s one of the most important things
that I enjoyed the most, tagging those gators
and then getting information back on them
from hunters even years later. Hunters who
report back to us are so important to biologists
because we get a world of information about
the gators—where they came from and where
they’re harvested.”
If you are interested in the Mississippi
alligator harvests and past records, check out
the link about alligators at www.mdwfp.com/
wildlife-hunting/alligator-program/. There are
several links including harvest records from
the early alligator hunts, as well as the Mississippi
alligator hunting records.
MISSISSIPPI Woods&Water 47