12-Foot, 750-Pound Gator Trapped in Florida

Published: 3/30/2019, 8:08:20 PM EDT

JUPITER, Fla.—A massive gator weighing over 700 pounds (318 kilograms) and measuring nearly 12 feet (4 meters) long has been caught in South Florida.

A spokeswoman for Jupiter Police says a trapper caught the unusually large gator near an office park Thursday after a business owner reported it. The reptile weighed nearly 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and is being taken to a gator farm in central Florida.

Police catch a massive gator weighing over 700 pounds and measuring nearly 12 feet long in Jupiter, Fla., on March 28, 2019. (The Jupiter Police Department) — Police catch a massive gator weighing over 700 pounds and measuring nearly 12 feet long in Jupiter, Fla., on March 28, 2019. The Jupiter Police Department

The department posted pictures of officers wrangling with the gator. Photos of the reptile have been shared more than 800 times.

The Sun Sentinel reports alligators are especially active in South Florida during warm weather. Their mating season runs from April through June.

Prior Incident

Larry, a 12-foot monster gator, decided to take a stroll in Florida on March 2.

Marc Cher and his son Jacob were playing golf when they suddenly spotted an alligator.

"I was first scared out of my pants because he was so large. And at first I didn't believe what I was seeing. I mean, it was like looking at a prehistoric monster." resident Marc Cher told local NBC affiliate WPTV in an interview. "And I had one foot on my accelerator on my golf cart in case he made a move."

The massive alligator typically hangs out on his own but on March 2, it decided it would check out what's going on across the street, creating quite a scene by blocking the road and stunning people who were trying to drive through the area.

Larry is generally peaceful and usually respected by the local people, who know not to mess with him and keep their pets away. He's also a bit of a local celebrity. He has his own Facebook page and a placard at one of his favorite ponds.

Wildlife Biologist Discovers Massive 700-Pound Alligator in Georgia

A wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) discovered a 13-foot, 700-pound alligator in an irrigation a few weeks ago.

The alligator was living along Lake Blackshear and was spotted by a local Sumter County resident on Feb. 25, who reported it to authorities.

When its pictures started to appear on social media, it's massive size led people to think it was a hoax.

“Apparently a lot of people think it’s fake, but I can assure you that it is not,” Brent Howze, a DNR wildlife biologist told Cordele Dispatch. “I’m the one in the picture, and you can probably tell that I didn’t get too close to it.”

Howze measured the animal at 13 feet and 4 inches long with a chest girth of 57 inches. He was not expecting to find anything longer than 10 to 11 feet long when he first arrived at the spot.

“It’s a testament to Georgia’s alligator management program that alligators can grow to this size,” Melissa Cummings, a spokeswoman with Georgia DNR, told the First Coast News. “The only way these animals get this large is by avoiding humans.”

Cummings said the alligator was in the ditch for close to a week and this was unusual behavior for an alligator.

“It took a while to get it out of that ditch. It was bigger than we originally anticipated and we had to use heavy equipment to move it,” Howze told Cordele Dispatch.

Once the biologist got it out on the land, they noticed various old gunshot wounds on its body. It was in extremely poor health and had to be euthanized.

The Associated Press, NTD reporter Samuel Allegri, and The Epoch Times reporter Venus Upadhayaya contributed to this report.