GIANT Alligator Caught! One Bite and It's Over!

This is a 300 pound American alligator. It's quite the catch, and wait till you see how we pull that off. First, let's check out what we caught earlier in the day. Big thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring this episode. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. I'm on board. Okay, you ready? I'm so ready. So this will be the first time you have ever attempted to catch an alligator. They don't necessarily scare me that much, but I've definitely heard that they are not animals to take for granted. You look at how dark the water is. Imagine being lost in an environment like this, or falling out of a boat in an environment like this. This water is so dark. Yeah, crazy. You can't see the bottom at all. Today we're headed into the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge to catch alligators. We'll be working alongside a University of Georgia research team who's leading alligator studies within Okefenokee. Now our target is to catch the biggest gator possible with the ultimate goal of placing a very expensive tracking beacon on its back. Along for the adventure is my good friend Lexi Limitless. Now she's never caught an alligator before, so with any luck, we're gonna land an absolute monster. So Mark, explain the process to me a little bit of how you catch alligators, because this is cool. We're using a treble hook, and it doesn't hurt the animal in any way. No, so we're just using the big treble hook. It's basically just a weighted snag hook, and all I'm gonna do is cast over the animal. I'm gonna reel in slowly, let the hook drag against the animal. Once it makes contact, I'll set the hook. I'm just holding the animal on with tension on this line, and I gotta try to reel the animal in toward the boat until we can get it close enough, we can get a snare over the animal, then we have more control over it. And what pound test line are you working with? 150 pound test. Dang, all right, so we can catch some big alligators today. We can catch some big ones, and there's still a chance they might break the line. You have an extremely important role as my snare buddy. So you're holding the rope, so the second I get it around the neck, it's gonna tighten, and you have your hands on the rope. I'm sorry, Mom. And you're that critical piece that is gonna help pull the alligator in. I'm not feeling it over my head at all right now. It's totally fine. So when it's next to the boat, and we're securing the animal, Mark's gonna reach in and grab its mouth, and he's literally closing the mouth of these huge animals with his hands. And then a second person comes in and wraps that tape around the animal's mouth. Nice! Go team! Tape on snout, let's go! So right now, we gotta focus on getting the alligator up and onto the boat. That wire's not gonna hurt the alligator at all. The shells are so thick. Yes! Nice work, guys. Slide it forward a bit. All right, let's let it pop off right here. It's on the back. So, Lexi, what's one of the first things you notice about being on the back of an alligator? Tell me, what does it feel like, this prehistoric creature? It's just so powerful. I can see and feel its breath. This is big. This is a big alligator. And what you don't realize is that an animal like this has unbelievable power right up until the point where it realizes that it's been caught. Now, I've noticed this many times with reptiles, of all species. Like, right now, it's just like, cool. There's no point in struggling. I'm just gonna chill out, fill back up that energy so when we release it back into the wild, you're gonna see it explode with power and disappear. I think the thing that I'm still not over is the fact that I know that's just electrical tape that's closing its mouth right there. So, one of the things that's so interesting about alligators is in terms of that downward pressure when they bite, they have one of the strongest bite forces, crocodilians in general, of any animal on the planet. But they have very little ability to lift their mouth up. So, even a huge alligator. So, we- Sounds like that's the gator's, like, Achilles heel. Yes, that is a great description. So, right now, Kimberly is going through the biometric data collection. Lexi's helping her do a length, a width. They're gonna pull a bio-sample, basically to check the health of the alligator. And then we're gonna place her right back into the environment. And believe it or not, this is the first time this alligator's been caught, so it's gonna get a small tag put in it. And the research continues. When it gets dark out, we're probably gonna catch something even bigger. But for Lexi, landing this alligator on the first try, unbelievable. Nine foot for the first gator ever. Look how large that foot is. Put your hand next to that, just as a comparison. It's hand is bigger than mine. But feel these nails, they're huge, but they're not sharp. This is incredible. But one of the things that I love about alligators is these osteoderms help them with basking. So when they bask in the sun, they need to heat up as quickly as possible. So these act like kind of little solar panels that distribute the heat through these bones so that they can heat up faster. It's so cool. Do you wanna learn how to tell the- You have to check the gender. Yeah, do you wanna tell whether- of catching your first alligator. Wait, really? Yeah, sure. Do you wanna sex your first alligator? Yeah, I guess so. This is not on my 2025 bingo card. Well, it should have been. So cloaca is the single opening on the animal. It's the entrance and exit for all things. And you're gonna reach in there and you're simply gonna tell me if you feel a penis or not. Wait, what? Yes, and if you feel something, if you feel a carrot, that is an alligator penis. Oh my gosh. I think it's a boy. It's a boy. It's so easy to tell an animal this size. It's a boy. It's your first alligator. We're making you do all the things. Wow. And I would say this is an adult. It's for science, guys. Yeah. It's for science. Wow. All right, you wanna- Okay, now it's time to release our first catch of the day. This has been such a crazy, crazy guy to get to know. And we're gonna be releasing him back into the water now. All right, so go ahead and dump the tail on him. Just hold on to the rope as he goes over. Okay, one, two, three. Give it a tug. There you go. Yeah. Way to go. Yeah. Good job, you guys. Be free. I feel like my heart is pounding and just watching it disappear into the black. I can't believe that was only the first one that we saw. Honestly, it'll be amazing if we get something bigger than that. Important research is being done here at the Okefenokee Swamp. 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We've got this 10-mile canal. Alligators and birds love it. It attracts a lot of wildlife. It's deep water in a really shallow area, and it's a beautiful area to try to find some alligators. Okefenokee Swamp, as far as the eye can see. Absolutely beautiful. You guys are aiming for this to become a World Heritage Site, correct? Absolutely. And a World Heritage Site is an IUCN designation, which is an international institution that means that on an international basis, Okefenokee will have special protected status for life. Big conservation goal, huge opportunity, not only for Okefenokee, but for the entire United States. We're getting closer into the zone where we identified on the map that Mark has seen a really large alligator. So we got the cameras up and ready just in case we see that eye shine. This is one we've seen kind of move in and push some other big alligators out. We think he might be the dominant male. If you had to estimate just based on having seen him in the past, can you guess on the length? At least 10 feet. It's tricky because out here we've noticed they get really girthy, but not necessarily as long. This one right there. No, it's not big enough. There's one up there. That might be him. Okay, we've got a pretty good size alligator we might go for this. Lexi, I'm handing the camera over to you. Got him. We're gonna have to do something special here. Okay. Give me your snare. Hook's in his mouth. So we've got the least best case scenario which is the hook is actually in his mouth. So we're gonna have to work the snare down the line and onto the alligator. No longer in the mouth. Here, let's take this back out. Single one from the pole. Okay, we got him. All right, he's on. Woo! All right, we've got him on the end of the rope. Now it's a matter of getting him up and onto the boat. Got in exactly the perfect spot right behind the skull at the base of the neck. Not hurting the animal anyway whatsoever. But I do want to make sure that I have a good grip on this rope because at any moment, if he explodes with power, might pull me right off the front. And he's not very tired. He's not very tired at all, no. Try to get to this. Do you got tape, Kimberly? Yes, I do. I'm gonna have to go around my arm. You guys are gonna have to counterbalance. I'm just putting some extra tape on this big boy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. All right, getting this alligator onto the boat is definitely gonna be a challenge. Hold on. He's rolling. Got him. Saved it. I'm good. It's what they call walking the dog. That's intense. Counterbalance. I got a leg. I need to not flip the rope. I think the boat is an option. Flooding it in. Flooding is an option. I was just kidding. I think this is the time for Joe to go. I'm gonna go with it. One, two, three. Yes. Oh my God. Okay, feet up, feet up. Oh my gosh. Careful in case he shakes his head. We need to slide him over so that the weight comes to the middle of the boat. Ready? One, two, three. Great job, guys. Let's go. Okay, guys, that was insane. Are you joking me? This is how it's done in the Okefenokee. They don't mess around. Look at the size of this gator's foot. He's a very healthy boy. He's the healthiest we got right here. This is absolutely the biggest alligator we see in this area. Really? Oh yeah. Wow. We're gonna get drugs going because we get that some time to set in. Hold on. We need to retape the mouth. He was just able to open his mouth a decent amount. Just hold in case he spins. Here we go. We're good. All right, cool. Woo, jaw secured. So first thing to do is check the length. Yep. Okay, let's do it. It is not easy to put a giant alligator in a boat and have it under control so you can get its measurements and biometrics. I can promise you that. 308. 308? I think that's right at 10. 10.2 feet. Now, is this big enough to put the transmitter on? Absolutely. Okay, we've got an absolute giant and this is gonna be the candidate for the transmitter. This is by far the biggest gator I have ever seen in my life. So there's the transmitter. You can see right there, this is the what, Kimberly? The nuchal plate? The nuchal shield. The nuchal shield needs to be big enough to be able to house the transmitter, which will lock in place right there. And look at these scutes. Look at the way that they're jagged like the spikes of a dragon. That's definitely gonna provide protection and a good area for this to stay contained. Hold on. Oh man, he's so strong. Let's get down to work. What are you administering here? It's anti-inflammatory just to help with healing and reduce risk of any infection. It's really a precautionary measure because alligators are incredibly resilient to infection. They're amazing machines. And then the lidocaine we're gonna give him is just a local anesthetic, similar to what you would have if you were at the dentist, just so that he doesn't feel anything when you attach the tag. Look at the size of the teeth. It's awesome. All right. You know, it's all like- We're gonna finish the anesthetic. All right. We've administered the local anesthetic now. We gotta wait 15 minutes for that to kick in before we can start the tag attachment. 1-20-18. No, 1-18, sorry. Four feet around. All right. Head length, 44.5. Skull width, 25.7. 25.7 width. Nose, 37.2. Eyes to snout. Okay. So we are now going to place the transmitter, correct? We're gonna do the first step of attaching the satellite tag. Okay. So we're drilling through these nuchal shields, which are osteoderms, which literally means bone skin, where it's literally just a piece of bone covered by some light scales and skin. So I'm gonna drill actually through the bone to attach the tag directly to his bones. Now that he's been done with lidocaine, he shouldn't feel a thing. And you'll notice, you see no movement from the alligator. It doesn't feel anything. It's just like you going to the dentist and having them clean your teeth. So this is not an inexpensive device, is it? It is not. With the cost of the tag and the data subscription time over three years, it's about $5,000. But that means for the next three years, we're gonna get to learn all of the movements that this male makes. We're gonna get to learn where is he courting females and where is he moving to eat or where's he moving to overwinter? We're gonna learn every single detail about where this animal goes for the next three years, which helps us a lot with how do we manage and how do we conserve these really incredible charismatic animals. I mean, that thing just fits on there perfectly. You guys weren't wrong. This is definitely the right size gator for that transmitter. All right, now we can start mixing epoxy. So the epoxy then is a second layer of security to keep it on the alligator. Yeah, it's to make sure that these wires don't get tangled up on any branches or anything that could potentially get him stuck somewhere. Got it. Well, there you have it, guys. It doesn't get much more perfect than that. From spotting, snaring, and then successfully getting a massive 10-foot, two-inch alligator onto a boat to apply a transmitter that will help him collect data for the next three years. Big thanks to the UGA Alligator Catch Team, Lexi Limitless, and everybody out there who's helping to support the conservation of these amazing reptiles. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave, stay wild. We'll see you on the next adventure. All right, now it's time to get this big gator back into the swamp. So we're gonna slide the board over to the edge here. Okay. And then we're gonna get on this side of the animal so we can push the tail off that way. All right. I'm gonna loosen the tape up here. Okay, you can get off to the side here. Okay. And then we'll just push the alligator over the side. All right, push his back, push his back. Over he goes. We did it! Woo! Right there. There goes his tag. Bye, buddy. There he goes, right there. Wow, look at the tag go in the distance. Right there. Wow.