Not so long ago, the American alligator was critically endangered and hunting, or harvesting, them in any way was prohibited. Today, three states allow alligator hunting and in at least one of them - Florida - there are so many of the critters they have become a nuisance. The opportunities to take an alligator nowadays are so numerous and complicated that they defy easy summary. Suffice it to say, they fall into two categories - outfitted and/or guided opportunities; and on-your-own opportunities. The latter are the most economical, but they are also the hardest to pull off if you live outside an alligator-hunting state. Guided opportunities vary widely in price and in the quality of the animals available. What follows is a partial listing of guides who offer alligator hunts in Florida where such hunts are legal, along with information that will allow you to run down even more guided hunts:
Several individuals who hunt alligators for profit also conduct guided alligator hunts for non-residents. One such company is Florida Trophy Gators. Owner Lee Lightsey has hunting privileges to take between 700 and 1,000 alligators every year on over 350,000 acres of private property near Lake Okeechobee in central Florida. He takes most of these alligators on his own to sell commercially, but he also conducts guided trophy hunts for about 10 to 12 hunters per year. A typical hunt for a trophy gator starts with a discussion between the hunter and Lightsey regarding trophy expectations. He prescouts a gator before the hunter arrives, and says it usually takes only a day to guide the hunter to the gator via airboat, swamp buggy or pickup truck. Once there, the animal can be taken with a rifle, archery tackle or harpoon. If for some reason the desired gator is not killed in two days, the hunter can either pay nothing or pay $1,000 to take a gator of under nine feet long. If the hunter takes a nine or 10-foot gator he pays a fee of $2,700; an 11 or 12-foot gator costs $4,500. These trophy hunts do not include the $50 state alligator hunting license,........(continued)
