What a gator! Has anyone ever caught a bigger one? Not in Mississippi. At least, not as far as we know.

A group of hunters captured the longest alligator ever recorded in Mississippi. Donald Woods, Will Thomas, Joey Clark, and Tanner White harvested the male alligator on Saturday. It came from the Sunflower River.

The gator weighed 802.5 pounds. That’s as much as a large piano or 18 bushels of apples. It measured 14 feet, three inches long. That’s about as long as two queen mattresses laid end to end. The gator breaks the previous record by over two inches.

After capturing the animal, the hunters hoisted it with a forklift. They posed for a picture at Red Antler Processing in Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Alligators are native to the Southern United States and China. They have rounder noses than crocodiles. Gators are great swimmers. Half their length comes from their tails. In the wild, they live between 35 and 50 years—unless a hunter nabs them first!

Did you know Mississippi has an alligator hunting season? Alligator hunters use fishing rods, crossbows, and spears. Some use the alligator skin to make leather. Some eat the alligator meat. Hunting gators helps to keep the population in control. The season opens on the last Friday in August each year. This year, it ends September 4.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. — Revelation 4:11