Giant 4-meter alligator caught in the United States: six hunters barely managed to hold it still. Photo

A giant alligator has been caught in the United States. The beast, over 4 meters long and weighing 365 kilograms, was caught in a net in the Yazoo River, which stretches across Mississippi and Louisiana.

The team of six hunters admitted that they fought the giant for about an hour before they finally captured the 60-year-old alligator. And after catching the prey, they decided to just eat it, writes DailyMail.

Mississippi has an annual alligator hunting season. More than 3,700 people participated in the 2024 hunt, which ended yesterday, with an average of five to six people on each team.

According to state rules, hunters can catch up to two alligators over 1.2 meters in length, but only one can be longer than 2 meters. Participants in the hunt can take home their "prize" and trade it for "wallets, belts and eating."

This year's biggest trophy was an alligator over 4 meters long and weighing 365 kilograms. The hunters were not even hindered by the heavy rain during the hunt.

"We sat through a monsoon for over 3 hours… crunched 2 poles, survived the death roll a few times, displaced everything in the boat, and still managed to bring this monster home," said Megan Sasser, one of the hunters.

It is not known what tools were used to catch the alligator, but according to the rules, hunters can use everything from hooks and harpoons to firearms.

After the successful hunt, the winning team took several photos with the lifeless carcass and took it to the local meat processing company Red Antler.

"In the last five years, we here at Red Antler have processed probably about 3,000 alligators, and we have only got two that were over the 14-foot in length measurement," said Shane Smith, owner of Red Antler Processing.

The team took most of the meat home and donated the rest to Hunter Harvest, a nonprofit organization that donates caught and harvested meat to families in need.

Megan Sasser posted a photo with her trophy on Facebook. However, not all readers responded positively to the woman's hunt. Some netizens were outraged and wrote, "This alligator had to be at least 50 years old to get this big. Such a shame. A beautiful animal!"

According to animal rights activists, the largest alligator ever recorded was 5.8 meters long and weighed more than a ton when it was caught in Louisiana in 1890.

And the largest predator in Mississippi was killed in 2023. It was 70 centimeters longer than the one caught this year.

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