Alligator trapped by Orlando man sets state record for lengt

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margaritaman
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Alligator trapped by Orlando man sets state record for lengt

#1 Post by margaritaman » Wed Nov 03, 2010 8:16 am

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An alligator trapped Sunday by an Orlando man in a Brevard County lake broke the official state record for length.

Tres Ammerman, who traps gators as a hobby, caught the 14-foot, 3 1/2-inch male alligator in Lake Washington.

The previous official state record for length, set in 1997, was a 14-foot, 5/8-inch male alligator from Lake Monroe in Seminole County.

Alligators over 14 feet are very rare in Florida, said Arnold Brunell, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission wildlife biologist who inspected the gator trapped by Ammerman.

"This was really something that we don't see much of," Brunell said.

Ammerman and two others were on their boat when they spotted the large gator on the shore Sunday night.

"I knew he was a giant gator when we saw his head," Ammerman said.

After harpooning the alligator, it did what the reptiles normally do — thrashed around, swam and pulled the boat.

T.J. Schause, Ammerman's nephew who was also on board, quipped that the gator pulled the watercraft faster than the motor.

The gator was too big to go in the boat, so the men essentially had to tow the reptile in.

It took the trio more than two hours to catch the gator and bring it to the boat dock. They then moved it to Ammerman's garage.

Brunell confirmed Monday that the gator broke the state record for length, but it is not the heaviest.

Ammerman's gator weighed in at 654 pounds. The Florida record for weight is a 1,043-pound alligator from Orange Lake in Alachua County.

There have been accounts of longer alligators being caught in Florida — including a 17.5-foot gator captured at Apopka in 1956 — but those are not considered official by state records.
Cruising the salt waters of East Florida.

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