Four hunters in Mississippi bagged the biggest alligator in state history, a monster that measured over 14 feet in length, weighed 802.5 pounds, and was appropriately labeled a nightmare.
According to a Facebook account, the prehistoric-looking beast was taken from the Yazoo River during Mississippi’s alligator hunting season.
Don Woods, one of the four who killed the gator, told local media that he and his partners saw the enormous alligator in the river shortly after launching their boat at 9 o’clock at night. Getting the giant into their boat took seven hours longer than the hunters had anticipated.
A report shows that after a night of frantic thrashing, the gator wore itself out, but not before shattering nearly every one of their fishing gear. Before 4 a.m., the hunters had successfully defeated the enormous reptile, but they still had no idea its size.
State wildlife authorities said that the scaly predator weighed 802 and a half pounds,14 feet and 3 inches in length, and had a belly circumference of 66 inches.
A 14-foot and 3/4 inch, 766-and-a-half-pound alligator was captured in Mississippi in 2017, setting a new state record for the biggest alligator ever recorded in the state.
Alligators have a lineage going back millions of years in nature’s record and have stayed mostly unaltered.
According to research, incubating American alligator eggs at 93 degrees or above results in predominantly males, whereas incubating them at 86 degrees or below results in females. Males and females are both produced at intermediate temperatures.
Although an alligator’s jaw may close with pressure up to 3,000 psi, an adult alligator’s mouth can be kept shut with a single hand. While the muscles used to clamp down on prey are quite powerful, the muscles needed to open the mouth are not.
The majority of an adult alligator’s 74 to 84 teeth are hollow. A replacement tooth will develop in the place of a lost one. Alligators may lose hundreds of teeth over their lifespan.
