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Largest gator in the Western Hemisphere?

G

GeckoStud

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I got an email from a friend recently, to my great disappointment the pictures did not load but the beast description did. The so called "alligator" was found in New Orleans and measured 21 feet and weighed 4500 pounds! To me this sounds a little fishy and also put to credit it was an internet story and the pics in the email did not load.

The brief description went on to describe that the army killed it because they thought it would be a problem, and do to its "age" it would be to lazy to hunt animals, and it would target humans. So they killed it without proof. Don't get me wrong this guy, if he is or was real, would probably have become a problem. But they didn't have to kill him, captivity could have been an option. Look at Gomek for those who have heard of him. 17 foot saltwater crocodile became a problem croc but was put into captivity at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, and he lived the rest of his days happy and fed. He even tamed down and seemed to settle into his new life.

So you can see why I would be pissed if this supposed giant was killed without proof of a murderous streak, assuming he existed at all. If you have any information please let me know, I would like to see this colossus if he is real.
 
I can tell you that it was not a gator. there were multiple things of this nature flying around the internet after Katrina hit. The story was pretty consistent, and was accompanied by various shots of a large croc. The size puts it in line with either a Nile or Salty. It is also very unlikely that it was "found" in New Orleans (unless he floated away from a storm damaged croc farm/exhibit...but that would have made even bigger headlines). I seem to recall seeing the pictures a few years ago, and I believe it was a Nile croc. I'll see if I can dig up any info for you
 
That sounds much more believable, and yea that is definitely a Nile croc. And i can see how they exaggerated greatly on the size. Given the photo i wouldn't say it was more than 17 feet or weighed much more than a ton. Thanks for clearing this up.

On another note, did you guys see the killer croc in Uganda named Gustave? He was a true monster, the managed to capture him on film but failed to actually capture and measure him. The film clearly shows him next to twelve foot crocs and he utterly dwarfed them. The hippos even stayed out of this goliath's path. This was no hoax and this beast was real, but he was a smart one and avoided all attempts of capture. Gustave however has killed many people along the river he called his kingdom, and hasn't been seen since the documentary. It is believed that the government stepped in and eradicated him. In the documentary though they depicted the crocs side and you could clearly see machine gun wounds that had healed. The scientist attributed this to his intelligence in avoiding humans and his murderous attacks on them. This seemed odd to me, but in truth most of his victims were found slaughtered and not eaten. Either way Gustave is nowhere to be found and a true giant has been lost forever. Although they were unable to capture him they estimated him to be near 30 feet in length and weighing well over 2,000 pounds. The document was put out by National Geographic and was called "In Search of the Killer Croc." If you ever get the chance to watch it do so you will be amazed.
 
Yeah, that makes tons of sense. Lets just kill the possible largest croc in the Western Hemisphere, rather than keep him in captivity and study him a live...makes worlds of sense.
 
JnSinverts said:
Yeah, that makes tons of sense. Lets just kill the possible largest croc in the Western Hemisphere, rather than keep him in captivity and study him a live...makes worlds of sense.
Click to expand...
Naaaah, he wasn't even close...if you read the real story, he was only about 16 ft
 
LOL, I don't read, I just skim...but still he was a cutie! Such a waste to kill him, regardless.


Sheila
 
this croc and gustave

i agree-what a damned sin to see this croc killed! would it not have made much more sense to capture him alive and put him in some sort of zoo. the democratic republic of the congo is incredibly poor. an animal like this, surely, would have helped to corral in lots of travelers. after all, look what happened in cape york, australia. in that, i mean, once they stopped killing the crocs, the eco-tourism industry exploded-bringing in tons of tourist dollars.

gustave: now this is a very interesting case. i was unaware of the national geographic program on him. however, i have been reading about him on the 'net for ages. at last account, he was still alive and unaccounted. 30 feet i find absurd (my opinion). these days, a croc over 20' would be very well publicized in herp circles. if i recall correctly, the largest known crocs in existence (at least in captivity) are either at samut prakan in thailand or the madras croc bank in india. they are siamese x salty hybrids. and i dont believe that any excede 20 feet. if anyone knows differently, i would be most interested to know.

sincerely,

gino
 
GeckoStud said:
On another note, did you guys see the killer croc in Uganda named Gustave? He was a true monster, the managed to capture him on film but failed to actually capture and measure him. The film clearly shows him next to twelve foot crocs and he utterly dwarfed them. The hippos even stayed out of this goliath's path. This was no hoax and this beast was real, but he was a smart one and avoided all attempts of capture. Gustave however has killed many people along the river he called his kingdom, and hasn't been seen since the documentary. It is believed that the government stepped in and eradicated him. In the documentary though they depicted the crocs side and you could clearly see machine gun wounds that had healed. The scientist attributed this to his intelligence in avoiding humans and his murderous attacks on them. This seemed odd to me, but in truth most of his victims were found slaughtered and not eaten. Either way Gustave is nowhere to be found and a true giant has been lost forever. Although they were unable to capture him they estimated him to be near 30 feet in length and weighing well over 2,000 pounds. The document was put out by National Geographic and was called "In Search of the Killer Croc." If you ever get the chance to watch it do so you will be amazed.
Click to expand...


Um...no. Niles don't get to be 30 feet, and neither do salties, which are the largest crocodilian in the world. So if by some chance he was actually 30 feet long, not only would he be the longest living crocodilian ever measured, but he would make Niles the largest species of crocodilians.

A 20 ft. saltie is a BIG crocodile. I believe Rob Bredl claims to have the largest crocodile in captivity coming in at around 24 ft. or so. They certainly don't get much bigger than that.
 
GinoInDaBronx said:
if i recall correctly, the largest known crocs in existence (at least in captivity) are either at samut prakan in thailand or the madras croc bank in india. they are siamese x salty hybrids. and i dont believe that any excede 20 feet. if anyone knows differently, i would be most interested to know.

sincerely,

gino
Click to expand...

Roark Ferguson has Utan, who is a saltXsiamese croc...and is around 22' long. To my knowledge the largest croc in the U.S.
 
Pretty interesting stuff there. It's amazing how blown out of proportion things get when they hit the net. People will do anything for attention.

I'll have to write a member on a Canadian forum about this. I know He spent quite a bit of time in India's croc bank studying. He would be the one to know about this sort of stuff first hand. Be nice to hear from Him again anyway.

Thanks for sharing that story. :)

Ciao,
Rick
 
Gustave sounds like a truly amazing giant. I would love to see any pics any of you people might have of crocs over 20' long. Please email me or post them on the net. Thanks.
 
Yea i doubt that gustave could be 30 feet, but i wouldn't be surprised if he was. I can say this though, he was definitely over the twenty foot marker or real close to it. The film national geographic produced showed him swimming by other 12 foot Nile crocs and he utterly dwarfed them. Dang it! I wish i could find a copy of the documentary or of any footage of it.
 
Does anyone have any pictures of Utan or the one Rob has?
The measurements and weight would also be interesting to know.
 
Largest Known American Alligator

You may be interested to know that the largest American Alligator (of substantiated size) is probably a specimen at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Augustine, Florida. This gator is plump, and measures, more than 13' -6"/ 4.1 meters in length.

I worked with one almost this size at Gatorland. Chester was, when I last measured him in February 2006, 13'-4-1/2" in length, and weighed about 1000 lbs/ 454 kg.

You may view a pic of him (second pic down, on the right-hand side) at this page: http://www.crocodopolis.net/dupont.htm. He's a handsome gator. :)

As for any larger - no one has come forward to offer a specimen of verifiable record.

If you know of any, I'd like to learn of it.

Regards,

Israel Dupont
Crocodopolis.net
ReptilesTv.com
 
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