The real Lake Placid alligator

Two of these three pictures were taken by news helicopters over Lake Conroe in Texas. Game wardens had to shoot it once it wandered into the backyard of Charlie and Anita Rogers. It's length was measured at 23'-1".

That deer's just a freakin' appetizer. I'd say it's probably the scariest animal I've ever seen, even more so than great whites.

Peace

Apparently not.

According to Snopes, this was a 12-13 foot gator spotted in south Georgia.

In August 2004, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service finally cleared up the issue by issuing a press release identifying the photographs as being taken in south Georgia (Near the Georgia/South Carolina border) by a USFWS officer in March 2004.

Press release

Here's the third picture explanation. A 13 foot gator, from Texas, shot with forced perspective.

I moved to Florida from Texas, and I know they're bigger down here

[edit on 2/1/2007 by eaglewingz]

Oh wow! I wonder what the point of all the mixup is? My sister got the email this morning and sent it to me.

It's still a scary SOB!

Peace

although that alligator is shot using forced perspective they do get huge from time to time. Alligators lack the gene to stop growth, so the more they eat and if the environment will support it they can get huge like 18 feet. Just like crocs. I think though that the largest alligator was one in captivity, apparently they eat better in captivity than in the wild. If the zoo keeper feeds them well.

Another case of utter BS finding it's way into your email.

Someone call Betty White.


Though I haven't seen this one yet, it always amazes me how quickly this stuff spreads. I've had to tell a few friends to stop forwarding all the crap they get because it was such a waste of time.
The wife of one friend was insulted when I threatened to block her if she didn't quit. She thought she was doing me a favor by forwarding me almost every piece of junk that showed up in her in-box. :shk:

[edit on 1/2/2007 by anxietydisorder]

ha ha thats pretty funny.. anyway does anyone have any info on the giant crocs found in africa.. i have been told many stories about crocs being up to 20 or 30 feet..

Hi there,

The Nile croc aparently grows to approximately 20feet.

The following link has some good info about the deiffernet species and potential sizes. It also mentions historical sizes.!! They got big in the past, thats for sure

Croc Sizes

well that photo may be fake in the sence that it was made to look longer but I live in florida and know for a fact that there are and has been aligaters 23 feet and more .
How do I know this u may ask ? simply by going to wallcalla springs they have a gater ( now dead ) Not long dead . in a glass box that messured over 23 feet .
and living gaters in jackson lack have been messured at over 18 and growing.
now on to a little reptial lession as its alreday been stated they grow there entire lives . now most ppl know that the gaters were nearly extinct back in the late 1950eds very few left in the wild .
of corse now theres well over a million again . But this isent as much of an accoplishment as u may think . A she gator can lay as manny as 100 eggs in the wild most babbys never make it to adult hood .
but ovesly in captivity u can keep them all alive and once a gater reaches 4 feet he has few predtors that can bother him .
so we just hached them by the thousands and reslised them back to wilde.
anyway on to the BIG picture . its now 2007 and it been at most 45 years from when gaters were nearly extinct meaning all the large gaters were goin. and a 45 year old gater is barly middel aged as they can live alest 150years.
so here we are now in 2007 and theres starting to be gaters spotted at 18 feet and more . well u give that 18 foot (YOUNG ) gater another 50 years and go back and messure him again.and you will find a 23 24 foot gater .
in closing gaters and crocks have been around longer then dinos and back in thous days a gator or crock reached leanghts of 45 to 55 feet.
the biggest factor in groth of these animals is 2 things warmth and avalible food . now a days the food is the biggest problem .

Wallcalla Springs? Do you have a location for that? I'm not familiar with the name and none of my resources find a location with that name in Florida. Any help would be appreciated.

I'd be interested in updating the records in this regard. The longest alligator that seems to be on record was 19'2' long, captured in Louisiana.

From multiple sources:

University of Arkansas
The longest recorded alligator was 19 feet, 2 inches, caught in Louisiana in the early 1900s. Most wild alligators do not get above 13 feet in length...

SaltGrassFlats
NC Zoo

Thanks,
eaglewingz

Edit : Perhaps this is the glass-encased gator you were thinking of.

"Old Joe" the alligator at Wakulla Springs Lodge

Old Joe was an 11-foot-long alligator of undetermined age (some said he was 300) who lived on a sand bar in Wakulla Springs... He was much beloved by the locals until he was shot dead by a poacher in 1966.

The Fish and Wildlife Service stuffed Joe, then dragged him around the state for years, an exhibit to be poked and prodded by sticky-fingered school kids. Now Joe is back home, in dignified retirement in a glass case in the lobby of the Wakulla Springs Hotel.

[edit on 2/2/2007 by eaglewingz]

Jesus christ, that thing is so huge. My god that would scare the crap out of me ~_~. Being a surfer im afraid of giant sharks but jeez, that is crazy. btw, they should have kept it alive, and unleash it on some other place, haha

I have seen a 22footer at wakula springs. They had to kill it years ago for eating an old man. You gotta wonder how big they can really get. Imagine a 30 footer out in the florida everglades...Awesome. Oh if your in florida or visiting...We have salt water crocs here too

Yep, an imaginary 30-foot alligator is awesome... and only imaginary, as are any 20' and up until found.

I find it hard to believe that Wakulla State Park, an entity of the State of Florida, would not have entered the "huge" gator in the official record. Or at least have it mentioned somewhere in the available literature. As it stands, the largest alligator on record in Florida is 17'5'' long, according to the National Parks Service .

The largest alligator ever recorded in Florida was 17 feet 5 inches long (5.3 meters). The largest alligator ever recorded measured 19 feet 2 inches (5.8 meters) and was found in Louisiana.

Ok,

Its appears the largest Croc ever captured is 33.1 feet long.

www.flmnh.ufl.edu...

A 33.1 ft long croc???i'd S$*% my pants!

Thats a big croc!!!!!!!!! Heh my best friend and I grabbed a 3 footer in our neighborhood some years back. That sucker hissed and even though it was small it scared me half to death. I can only imagine the fear a 30 foot croc would give me if It came my way!!! I'd prolly pee myself even with my 12 gauge.

Florida Gator that is...not croc, you couldnt pay me to go after one of those bad boys. gotta love that grin they have eh

Here in Aus, i think the biggest on record is around 18-20 feet...
To bloody big and scary for me!!
Alhough I wonder the outcome between a Great white and a croc.

Saltwater crocodiles are fantastic creatures - we'd have many more large specimens on record if we weren't so good at killing things for their skins.

:shk:

There have been some really enormous crocodiles reported, but you can chalk most of that up to fish stories. I've heard plenty of them.

The only ones I believe don't deal with extraordinarily large crocodiles (10 meters or more), rather, the stories of fishermen who have spotted saltwarer crocs in open water - dozens of miles offshore. Pretty cool...

There's always the chance that giant crocs will come back, but I doubt they're alive now. There just aren't that many untouched, game-rich areas of the planet left anymore, sadly. Same goes for alligators.

Some croc ancerstors are pretty cool, pretty damn big too. The Emperor Crocodile (Sarcosuchus Imperator) grew larger than a T-Rex and weighed more - 100 million years ago. I think that's the biggest one we know about, but I could be wrong.

wyrdeone, That is a freaking awesome tidbit of information I've never seen before. I couldnt imainge it being an ambush predator though. The sheer size of that thing!!! how could it wait in the shallows and expect something to walk right up on it Imagine a Tylosaurus or Dakosaurus encountering that croc. That would be a fight to see

the last pic is not true it is a 13 foot aligater they inlaged the image