Madison hunters land record alligator

Thomas Howard, The Meridian Star, Miss.
·2 min read

Aug. 30—Two Madison hunters on Sunday broke the state record for longest female alligator after catching a 10 foot, two inch alligator along the Pearl River. Jim and Richie Denson captured the alligator about five miles north of the Ross Barnett Reservoir.

In a news release announcing the record, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program Coordinator Ricky Flynt said the alligator was the same length as a 1984 world record for longest free-ranging wild female alligator set in Florida. That record stood until 2021 when a female alligator was caught in measuring 10 feet, 6.75 inches.

The Denson's catch had previously been caught and tagged as Yellow 410 by MDWFP in 2009, when it measured 10 feet, two inches, Flynt said. The 2009 capture, he said, happened less than 100 yards away from where it was caught Sunday.

"We tagged this alligator on June 11, 2009 as part of a research project," he said. "At that time, the alligator also measured exactly 10 feet 2 inches and was captured within 100 yards of where the Densons killed the record alligator."

Mississippi has tagged more than 800 alligators since beginning its program in 2007, and dozens of those alligators have been captured by hunters, Flynt said. The data the program provides, he said, is unlike any other data being collected in other states.

"We know that alligators are very long-lived, but there are no reliable methods to determine the age of a live alligator," Flynt said. "There are known-age female alligators that have been in captivity for over 35 years in a controlled environment and have only grown to about eight feet long. We have no idea how old Yellow 410 was when it was captured and tagged in 2009, but we do know that over the next 14 years it did not grow even one inch."

Additional data also show male alligators grow faster than female alligators, Flynt said, and the growth rate for individual alligators can vary from year to year.

"Given that knowledge and what we have learned from tagged alligators in the wild, it is entirely possible that this record alligator could easily be as much as 75-100 years old," he said. "This is definitely a world class alligator specimen."

The 2022 alligator hunting season opened Friday at noon and is set to end a noon Monday, September 5.