Mysterious disappearances of calves lead hunter to 13-foot alligator in Florida lake

Mysterious disappearances of livestock around a South Florida lake may finally come to an end, after a Mississippi man says he killed what amounts to a modern day monster.

Professional hunting guide Doug Borries reports he shot a 13-foot, 4-inch alligator in the lake and it weighed 905 pounds, according to a Jan. 20 Facebook post.

The alligator was killed in the fall “on private property” — with the owner’s permission — near the city of Okeechobee in Okeechobee County, he told McClatchy News.

“I had no idea the magnitude of how big his body was until we pulled him completely out of the lake,” said Borries, who lives in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

“It had been suspected of eating some of the local livestock around the lake and was considered a threat.”

Borries reports he “was staked out on top of the lake levee before daylight” when he spotted the alligator after dawn “on an island.”

It was about 321 yards away when he fireda single shot, striking it just above the eyes, according a Facebook post.

Photos show the reptile was nearly three times his height, including the tail. “An absolute beast,” he wrote on Facebook.

Borries says the rancher who owns the land suspects the alligator was “feasting” on calves. The bigger it got, the more concerned the family became for their safety, he added.

The alligator was believed to be about 80 years old, he said.

Borries noted the carcass did not go to waste, after it was pulled from the bottom of the lake. The meat has been processed for eating and he is having “a full life-size mount” made of the hide and skull.

As big as it was, the gator was about a foot short of a state record.

The longest alligator captured in Florida was 14 feet, 3.5 inches, and was caught in Lake Washington in Brevard County, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The record weight was 1,043 pounds for a 13-foot, 10.5-inch male killed in Alachua County’s Orange Lake, the state says.

Borries’ Facebook page says he’s a professional hunting guide and owner of Dynamic Outdoors TV, which is based out of Ocean Springs, just east of Biloxi, Mississippi.

This story was originally published January 31, 2022 at 10:26 AM with the headline "Mysterious disappearances of calves lead hunter to 13-foot alligator in Florida lake."