by Mysterious ᴅɪsᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴀɴᴄᴇs of livestock around a South Florida lake may finally come to an end, after a Mississippi man says he ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ what amounts to a huge day monster. Professional ʜᴜɴᴛɪɴɢ guide Doug Borries reports he sʜᴏᴛ a 13-foot, 4-inch alligator in the lake and it weighed 905 pounds, according to a Jan. 20 Facebook post.
The alligator was ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ in the fall “on private property” — with the owner’s permission — near the city of Okeechobee in Okeechobee County, he said.
“I had no idea the magnitude of how big his body was until we pulled him completely out of the lake,” said Borries, who lives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. “It had been suspected of ᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ some of the local livestock around the lake and was considered a ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴛ.” Borries said he “was staked out on top of the lake levee before daylight” when he found the alligator after dawn “on an island.”
According a Facebook post, the monster was about 321 yards away when he fireda single sʜᴏᴛ, sᴛʀɪᴋɪɴɢ it just above the eyes.
Photos show the alligator was nearly three times his height, including the tail. “An absolute beast,” he wrote on Facebook. Borries says the rancher who owns the land suspects the alligator was “ꜰᴇᴀsᴛɪɴɢ” on calves. Therefore, he said that he was very afraid for the safety of the whole family.
Borries added the ᴄᴀʀᴄᴀss did not go to waste, after it was pulled from the bottom of the lake. Alligator meat has been processed for ᴇᴀᴛɪɴɢ and he is having “a full life-size mount” made of the hide and skull.
As big as it was, the gator was about a foot short of a state record. The longest alligator captured in Florida was 14 feet, 3.5 inches, and was caught in Lake Washington in Brevard County, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The record weight was 1,043 pounds for a 13-foot, 10.5-inch male ᴋɪʟʟᴇᴅ in Alachua County’s Orange Lake, the state says.
