A trapper harpooned the biggest alligator on record in Florida - a 13-foot, 10 1/2-inch reptile that weighed in at 1,043 pounds.
Biologists needed a tow truck to maneuver the gator onto three scales.Licensed trapper Columbus White hauled the gator out of a lake April 17 because patrons of a fish camp 10 miles from Gainesville felt threatened, the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission said Tuesday.
"We occasionally get reports of gators longer than 14 feet, but this was the longest and heaviest one ever officially measured in Florida," said Woody Woodward, a biologist with the agency.
It took three hours to land the alligator, White said.
The gator produced 294 pounds of meat and 15 feet of hide with a combined wholesale value of about $2,500, Woodward said.