5,000 Apply for Licenses to Hunt Gators in Florida

More than 5,000 hunters met Friday’s deadline to apply for 235 licenses in Florida’s first alligator hunt in 25 years. The lucky winners won’t be allowed to use guns.

Once an endangered species, the American alligator now numbers about 1 million in Florida and is increasingly encountering humans as the number of people in the state also grows.

The Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission gave final approval Friday, during a meeting in Ocala, for the trapping and killing of up to 3,425 alligators in 20 wildlife management areas during the 30-day hunt this fall. That quota assumes that not every hunter will get his full 15-animal limit.

Commission spokesman Scott Ball said 15,000 applications were printed and he was surprised that only 5,000 people applied.

The sanctioned hunts will occur only at night, and trappers will have to use snares, harpoons, spears or similar weapons to get a gator close enough to kill. The only firearm allowed will be a “bang-stick,” a pole with a shotgun shell on the end that is used to kill a gator after it is snared and brought up to a boat, Ball said.

Florida residents selected for the hunt will have to pay a $250 license fee, plus a $30 tag fee for each gator they catch. Out-of-state hunters will have to pay $1,000 for the licenses.