Applications for alligator season opened online June 15 and will close at midnight June 30.
2017 marks the eleventh season of modern-day alligator hunting in Arkansas. To date, the largest alligator taken during the 2015 season at 3 feet, 10 inches.
“We always have some big gators come in during the hunt,” said Mark Barbee, biologist at the Monticello regional office. “It seems like each year was trading back and forth between the southwest and the southeast corners of the state for who could break the record.”
According to Barbee, biologists finished their alligator surveys in the last month and 101 permits will be available in this year’s drawing.
Private-land-at-large tags represent 60 of those permits, 21 will be available for public land in Alligator Zone 1 (Southeast Arkansas), and 20 will be available for public land in Zone 3 (Southwest Arkansas).
Private-land-at-large tags are available through the regular draw application process, but people who are drawn must provide written landowner permission and a map identifying their hunt area at a mandatory orientation.
Each permit authorizes the harvest of one alligator, which must be at least 4 feet long. Alligator hunting is allowed 30 minutes after sunset until 30 minutes before sunrise during the approved alligator hunting season dates – Sept. 15 to 18 and Sept. 22 to 25.
Each permit holder may have up to three assistants with them on the hunt, but only the permit holder is allowed to snare, harpoon or dispatch the alligator.
Applicants must be at least 16 years of age the day the hunt begins, and only Arkansas residents or holders of an Arkansas Lifetime Sportsman’s Permit may apply. Applicants with 12 or more AGFC violation points are ineligible to apply.
According to Barbee, biologists have seen a reduction in the number of nuisance calls they receive from the public, but it’s not likely due to the hunt itself.
“People seem a little more tolerant of alligators down here since the hunts began,” Barbee said. “The private-land-at-large tags offer ways to remove nuisance gators for landowners, so some of them will apply or tell their friends to apply and hunt their property.”
Successful hunters also will be able to check their alligator online instead of the mobile check stations that were required when the hunts began. With the new check-in system, Barbee said “we’ll be able to verify the alligators taken without all that manpower after dark and stay within Federal regulations.”