PHOTOS, VIDEO: Nearly 12-foot-long alligator killed in Arkansas creek; animal weighed over 500 pounds

One alligator weighed 524 pounds and measured 11 feet 8 inches.
One alligator weighed 524 pounds and measured 11 feet 8 inches.

Three Arkansas men Friday killed an alligator that weighed more than 500 pounds.

The three hunters — Warren Parker, 31; John Manues, 30; and Martin Lee Walt, 21 — found the animal around 10 p.m. Friday in a cypress creek a few miles outside Dumas.

On land, hanging from a wire with its mouth taped shut, the gator weighed 524 pounds and measured 11 feet 8 inches. But in the water, it was difficult to tell.

Parker said he and his friends, all from Dumas, began the hunt after a farmer told them about his gator problem and gave them hunting tags.

Parker provided the boat, Manues managed the ropes, and Walt carried the harpoon.

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Photos by Martin Lee Walt

They had been trailing the alligator for about an hour when it it turned and swam toward them.

“[It was] showing us who's boss,” Parker said.

Walt fired, hitting his mark, and Manues began pulling the gator in.

Parker said the group only realized the alligator’s size when it was by the side of the boat and they found it would not fit inside. They had to use a pickup to drag it ashore.

The alligator now sits at Half-Moon Deer Processing in De Witt, where it will be made into boots and belts.

They plan to hang the mounted head, but Parker said the tail is the best part to eat. He prefers it fried, with ranch dressing on the side.

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