Hunters learn reptiles can be elusive as they search S.C. waters

Photo Gallery

Alligator Hunt

South Carolina's new alligator hunting season began Saturday and will run until the second Saturday of October.

In the predawn hours, Bailey Dukes, his brother and a buddy stalked gators in their Edisto River swimming lanes, hoping to hook the skin of one of the shy creatures.

Beams of light pointed on the river's edge proved they were there — pairs of glowing, candle-lit eyes reflected back.

But every time Dukes got close to one, his efforts were foiled by a reptile with considerable more years of survival instincts.

Either Dukes' attempts to land a hook from a fishing pole went awry or the 8- to 10-foot gators would disappear whenever his johnboat drew near, leaving only air bubbles behind. The unofficial box score showed they'd spotted up to 17 gators in a one-mile stretch but ended up empty-handed.

"They're a lot smarter than I thought," Dukes conceded as his day on the water ended at the Willtown boat landing in southern Charleston County.

Despite Dukes' shutout, participants called the opening day of South Carolina's first public alligator hunt in decades a success. Spartanburg resident Glenn Adcock said his "conservative"

estimate had him spotting 100 wild alligators during the night. He took his kill, a mid-8-footer, in the Combahee area around 5 a.m. using a bow and arrow.

"Trial and error," he said outside Cordray's meat processing station in Ravenel, where he took his gator to get skinned. "And just getting up on them as quiet as you can."

The hunt, which was years in the making, will run for the next month. It is open to only 1,000 hunters who won state-issued permits by way of a lottery — $10 to enter plus $100 for a license limited to taking one animal.

About 1,500 people applied. Some of the hopefuls live as far away as Utah. So far, 704 people have paid the $100 fee to receive a permit.

The hunt came about in large part after lawmakers saw it as a way to cull the herd as the human and animal worlds began to overlap. South Carolina supports about 100,000 gators in the wild, which is too many, state Sen. Larry Grooms said.

Grooms, R-Bonneau, said he's heard too many stories about big gators taking down dogs and swimming near families in the local lakes. At least seven other states already have public gator seasons.

No one knows what the biological effects will be from the hunt, but experts don't think the entire quota of 1,000 animals will be taken.

"I don't expect the population to nose dive," said Ron Russell of Gator Getter Consultants in Goose Creek. The sport is new, the alligator is tricky and many humans don't know what they are getting into, he said, suggesting maybe 400 would be harvested.

"They are longtime survivors," he added. "If you don't get them on the first try, the chances diminish by 90 percent."

Under the rules of the hunt, the gator must first be roped, lassoed or restrained before it can be taken to a boat and killed by use of a handgun or "bang-stick," a hand-held weapon with a bulletlike cartridge fired when in direct contact with an animal's head. No rifles are allowed.

Russell warned hunters to be alert during the roping process since underestimating the power of a wounded gator could be deadly, especially if someone is not physically up to it.

"If they go in and get tangled up with a 10-foot gator, they are going to realize fast that this is a pretty big animal," he said.

Most gators now are preparing for their fall migration to find their winter holes, Russell said. "Right now, they're just kind of hanging out trying to stay cool," he added.

As far as success of landing a gator goes, "lack of experience is going to matter," Russell said. "Some of them have a chance, but a lot of them don't. Too many people will have a vision of catching a 10- to 12-footer but wind up with a 7 to 8," he said.

Sam Chappelear, a regional wildlife coordinator with the state Department of Natural Resources, said it will be some time before biologists know the extent of the hunt. Successful hunters will have to map where their kills were made and how.

Given the early returns from Saturday, it appears the bow and arrow or crossbow seemed to be the most successful bag devices.

John Hollis Jr. of West Ashley got his gator early Saturday in the Edisto River, drawing it out from a dock. The 8-footer followed his calls for about 40 yards before he was able to land two shots from a crossbow.

Hollis thinks he may have bagged someone's "unofficial" pet, which, if true and if it ever was hand-fed, certainly was "creating problems for somebody else," he said, since gators can associate man with food.

In one of the more notorious alligator attacks in recent times, one year ago this week, Bill Hedden of Summerville survived having his arm torn off by a gator during a swim in Lake Moultrie.

Hollis said a positive factor about the state's new hunting season is that it could help the alligator's future. The presence of so many hunters in a season could cause South Carolina gators to become more skittish, he said, and afraid of humans.