Alligator hunters killed 181 alligators during the recent alligator season, recording an astonishing 86 percent success rate, according to Amanda Bryant, a herpetologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Bryant delivered his assessment during a presentation to the commission Wednesday during the commission’s monthly committee meetings in Little Rock. She said 181 alligator hunters successfully captured an alligator out of a total of 210 permits issued.

Typically, about 33 percent of hunters who obtain public land permits are successful, Bryant said. This year, the success rate on public lands was 54%, and 96% of private land quotas were filled. Private land permits allow landowners to accept nuisance alligators, which Bryant said could be a reason the commission is receiving fewer nuisance alligator complaints than in the past.

Only 29 authorized did not take an alligator. The weather might have enticed the hunters to take the first decent-sized alligator they came across. As Hurricane Helene approached, many hunters could have captured an alligator the first weekend instead of waiting for a larger one.

“Most of the unfilled alligator tags are because people are expecting a larger alligator than what they see, but perhaps some of the predicted rain has caused people to take an alligator one day. little smaller,” Bryant said. “Then the final weekend turned out to be pretty nice after all, and we continued to see decent numbers throughout the rest of the season.”

Alligators inhabit the waters of much of Arkansas. The northernmost population inhabits Kingfisher Lake in the Petit Jean Wildlife Management Area. These are believed to be nuisance alligators that the commission relocated. Bryant said reports of nuisance alligators are not increasing and that nuisance alligators are usually successfully relocated. They generally do not become repeat nuisances.

“Most complaints are handled in a non-lethal manner,” Bryant said. “Animals are captured and released. There are not a large number of repeat offenders. We are able to recover an animal and release it to a WMA or other public land. They do not continue to be a problem for the public.

The commission counts as accurately as possible the number of alligators in specific waters, Bryant said. The commission issues tags to sample a modest percentage of the population.

“We follow 16 established survey routes each year,” Bryant said. “We count the number of glowing eyes. From that, we are able to estimate the number of alligators in a body of water that are of harvestable size.”

Grassy Lake in southwest Arkansas near Millwood Lake is home to the state’s largest alligator population, Bryant said, with 91.8 alligators per mile. The owners of Grassy Lake do not allow alligator hunting.

White Oak Lake, near Camden, has a low population density, with 0.3 alligators per mile. Millwood Lake has 3.2 alligators per mile.

The Lower Arkansas River Wetland Complex near Tichnor supports a significant population of alligators. The commission also issues the most alligator permits for public waters in this area, which includes Upper Merrisach Lake, Post Pake and the Navigation Canal that connects the White River to the Mississippi River and Navigation Canal.

The largest alligator captured in 2024 was 12 feet, 6 inches long, taken in Millwood Lake by Cody Gourley of Amity. The largest alligator captured in Arkansas since alligator season was established 18 years ago was 13 feet, 11 inches long, taken by Travis Bearden at Lake Merrisach in 2020. This alligator weighed 800 pounds.

Gourley used a 14-foot boat to reach a backwater that people with larger, heavier boats could not access. He said he saw about 70 alligators a night, but a suitably sized gator was elusive.

“I tried using a harpoon on one or two, but couldn’t get it to stick,” Gourley said in an AGFC press release. “By the second weekend, I was getting to the point that any alligator would have been good for me. My uncle said we should wait until midnight that Saturday night before looking for a smaller alligator.”

Around 9:30 p.m., Gourley said he finally got close enough to a vehicle that met his criteria. Using instructions from the AGFC website, Gourley set up a trap to replace the harpoon.

“The snare drum was a much more intimate experience,” Gourley said. “We had to be within 8 feet of that alligator before we could loop on the first trap. Then once we caught it, it was a fight.”