Useful And Essential Facts About Gator Hunts

By Gregory Powell


Alligator is known to be a resource which is natural and renewable. The government has allowed controlled harvesting as one of the means used to manage the population of wild animals. The federal, state, and local governments have established different programs which ensure that harvesting and conservation of alligators is done in the right way. To the people, harvesting has benefits which are economic in nature although hunting should be controlled to avoid depletion of gators. This is what Gator hunts are all about.

There are a number of reasons for which alligators are harvested. Their prized leather is among the major reasons. Harvesting these animals to obtain leather has been done for a long time, dating back to the 1800s. Back then, the harvesting was largely unregulated. This nearly led to the extinction of the animals. Alligator harvesting dropped in the 1950s since the population of alligators had depreciated immensely.

To help restore the numbers of alligators in the wild, laws were enforced regarding harvesting activities. At some point in time, harvesting was completely banned in order to allow the numbers of the animals to rise again. He numbers grew significantly during the period when the ban was enforced and soon, there were enough alligators to warrant commercial harvesting. Today, there are several thousands of licensed alligator hunters in the United States.

These licensed alligator hunters are responsible for hunting some several hundreds of thousands of these animals annually. Before licensed hunters can hunt alligators, they must be issued with a tag. Tags are issued by the state only to licensed alligator hunters. Usually, tags are nontransferable, which means that they cannot be used by another person other than the person they are issued to.

Apart from licensing, it is a requirement that the land on which hunting is done be owned by the individual. Those that lack land have to seek permission to hunt on land approved for harvesting alligators. As such, the permission is separately obtained. Prior to the harvesting season, hunters apply hunting permits beforehand. This is helpful in preventing inconveniences.

The tags which they get specify the property a person is allowed to hunt on. It contains information concerning the property they are issued for. This implies that it is illegal to go hunting on land different from the one written on the tag. The law states that each person should carry the tag and license for hunting the alligators in their person at all times.

It is allowed for friends, other people, and family members to help hunters. The people who offer help must also be licensed to do so. They are permitted to hunt while on their own too. The license of the helper is costly and contains their names. It also has the license number of the hunter who is being helped.

Hunting season tends to come at the same time in the various states in the US. The season typically lasts 30 days depending on the location. People are allowed to hunt during daytime alone. Nighttime hunts are prohibited in most places because of the dangers associated with the activity.




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