An alligator the size of many cars in the United States has been captured and killed in Mississippi, and officials say it was so massive that it broke the previous state record.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks said four hunters — Tanner White, Don Woods, Will Thomas and Joey Clark — caught the monstrous gator Saturday, just one day after the state's alligator hunting season opened.
"He measured 14 feet and 3 inches long, with a belly girth of 66 inches and tail girth of 46.5 inches," officials said. "He weighed 802.5 lbs!"
Photos shared online brought praise from people across the state, including Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and others who said the sheer size of the monster made it look like something out of "Jurassic World."
"Congrats to Don, Joey, Tanner and Will on harvesting the biggest alligator in state history," Reeves said online, adding #TastesLikeChicken.
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When emergency crews arrived, they found the man with an above-elbow amputation. Bystanders had applied a tourniquet while waiting for help.
Thomas, a 43-year-old lawyer from Mississippi, told The Washington post that the entire experience was "pandemonium."
"It was chaos," he said. "When you have an 800-pound animal on the end of a fishing rod, and he’s coming up and he looks like a beast, everybody is kind of going crazy, and your adrenaline is pumping."
Thomas added that the group was eventually able to get a noose around the beast's neck before putting it out with a shotgun blast, in accordance with state law. The state has authorized public alligator hunting season since 2005 to control the population.
The previous Mississippi record gator was caught in 2017, measuring 14 feet and 3/4 inches long and weighing 766.5 pounds, according to SuperTalk Mississippi Media.
The world record largest alligator ever captured was in Alabama back in 2014 and measured 15 feet 9 inches in length and weighed over 1,000 pounds.
