Taxidermist Ken Owens has worked with just about any wild animal he can think of. Still, He was very impressed when he received the largest alligator caught during a gator hunt in the Alabama River. The 15 foot, over 1,000 pound large reptile is being preserved for public display.
It took close to three hours for the taxidermist to remove just the skin of the alligator prior to shipping it to a tannery. The biggest surprise came when biologists in the area asked Owens to open the gator up to get an idea what the massive animal was consuming in food. What they discovered shocked everyone. “I always thought that once an alligator killed something that it ate it a piece at a time,” explains Owen who is also the owner Ken’s Wildlife Images Taxidermy in Autaugaville, Alabama.Mandy’s husband, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew spent five hours hunting the animal.
The gator weighed an impressive 1011.5 pounds.
Although he has been in the taxidermy business for many years, Owen admits to being in awe of receiving such a huge animal.
They will gift some to family and friends.
The rest of the meat will be donated to local churches.
Smaller gators usually feed on fish, snails, and worms.
As they grow bigger they eat turtles, birds, and other reptiles.
It took a lot of work to move the 15 feet 9 inches gator.
The taxidermist kept pulling the ears when a full grown female deer came out.
It is believed the gator had eaten the deer a week before.
The average weight of a deer is 115 pounds.
It’s believed the alligator ate the animal in one big gulp.
Reptilian biologist Dr.
Kent Vliet, has no idea how the reptile of that size was able to catch the squirrels. His only assumption is that the small rodent fell into the water accidentally.
Biologists were surprised to learn that the gator consumed a large amount of greenery.
The rocks help to grind the food the gators have consumed.
“An alligator’s default setting is to assume something is food and they have to convince themselves not to eat it,” says Vliet.
Safari Club International officials admit they were shocked to see such an mega catch.
Initially they didn’t believe a gator this size could be found in Alabama.
Most of the meat that will be used for consumption came from the tail and jowls.
That was still a couple hundred pounds of meat.
Mandy is happy the gator has a new home as she jokes that it would have been to big to display the gator at her home.
