LITTLE ROCK — You know what they say about paybacks.
On Jan. 13, 2002, John McClendon of Monticello was duck hunting with his friend Anthony Brown at Bayou Bartholomew when a 4-foot alligator bit Brown's leg. Although the gator didn't seriously injure Brown, it alerted him to the possibility that bigger gators might live in the area.
"A 4-footer ain't too bad," Brown said at the time, "but if [the] Mama or Daddy grabbed me, it might be a different story."
On Sept. 21, 2007, McClendon evened the score for his friend. Participating in Arkansas' first alligator hunt, McClendon killed a mature, 12-foot, 8-inch alligator on his property near Moore's Bayou, off the Arkansas River near Pendleton.
In May 2002, McClendon said that Tommy Hines, a former alligator biologist with the Florida Game and Fish Department, surveyed Arkansas alligator populations to estimate the number of gators in our state. Hines said that there were probably more alligators in the Moore's Bayouarea than almost anyplace in Florida of comparable size.
McClendon said he had seen this particular gator in the cypress brake and canals near his camp throughout the summer. A big gator appears in that area every summer, he added, and he believed it might have been the same gator that attacked his dog in 1998.
"Knowing we had a chance to hunt him this year, we watched him especially close throughout the summer," McClendon said. "He was more brazen than ever and seemed to have no fear of people."
To catch the gator, McClendon said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission recommendedusing a 72-inch diameter beaver snare. McClendon also made an 80-inch snare, but he soon learned that an 80-inch snare won't easily slide over the jowly head of a 550-pound alligator.
"The snare stopped short of the back of his jaw, and the gator started to slip backward into the water," McClendon said.
He yanked on the rope, and the snare closed about midsnout. With the gator thrashing, McClendon handed the rope to his cousin Patrick Harris and then slid the second snare over the snout. With the second line, McClendon and his helpers were able to lift the gator's head out of the water. McClendon then killed it with a 12-gauge.
The hunting team slipped a third snare over the dead gator's snout and cut the first snare, which was useless. The third line gave them better control over the carcass, which they towed to shore. Then, to make sure it remained secure, McClendon beached his boat on top of the carcass. Then, he used a tractor to hoist the beast up the bank, where he applied the TemporaryAlligator Permit Tag under the supervision of a couple of AGFC wildlife officers.
"No matter how it is accomplished, hunting an apex predator capable of maiming and killing humans is an 'extreme' sport,' " McClendon said. I have a whole new respect for the boys in Florida, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana who have been doing it for years."
McClendon saluted the AGFC for what he called the foresight to reintroduce gators in the 1970s to the swamps they once ruled.
"There are probably thousands of gators in Arkansas, and in my opinion, they belong here," McClendon said. "They were part of the natural landscape of Arkansas for thousands of years before this country was settled by Europeans, and it is a shame that they were missing for a timebecause of man's fear, greed and arrogance.
"The old gator we killed was a nuisance and potentially dangerous," he added, "but because of the alligator hunt, we were able to remove him safely and enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Sports, Pages 32 on 10/07/2007