Alligator snapping turtle

Justin Broomhall took a Sunday fishing trip to Lake Cherokee with his father and his son. Little did he know they would make the catch of a lifetime. The Longview, Texas resident hooked a massive alligator snapping turtle on Father's Day, the biggest he's ever seen. "My dad was like 'Holy smokes, look at the size of that!'" Broomhall said. "My three-year-old son started panicking. He thought it was a dinosaur and kept saying, 'Let it go. Let it go. Put it back!'" Broomhall was using dough bait in hopes of reeling in a catfish, he said. However, "from [the turtle] being so old and going blind, he's using his smell to find bait," he said. "I guess he felt it, thinking it was some other dead fish and he ate it." The enormous creature weighed in around 200 lbs and was likely between 100 to 150 years old, estimated Broomhall, who works at Whitaker Plumbing in Carthage, Texas. "I do a lot of lifting. I was a bodybuilder in high school and 200 lbs to me is pretty easy to pick up," he … [Read more...] about Texas man catches massive alligator snapping turtle, then releases it back into the wild

0 Restaurants & Bars Bonez Brothers will bring authentic southern barbecue to Quincy, serving alligator dishes, pulled pork, brisket and baby back ribs. Jimmy Bentley , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Reply QUINCY, MA — A former Florida alligator wrangler announced he's bringing a taste of southern barbecue to Quincy. Bonez Brothers BBQ's menu will feature alligator fritters, alligator sausage and alligator tail, as well as pulled pork, brisket and baby back ribs, when it opens at 657 Southern Artery, according to Boston Restaurant Talk. Before moving to Massachusetts, owner Todd Noon spent much of his time hunting alligators and participating in Florida's competitive barbecue scene, Boston Magazine reported. In the '90s Noon competed with Michelbob's, an award-winning restaurant in Naples. Since moving to Massachusetts, Noon spent the last several years running an Attleboro-based catering company, which is where … [Read more...] about Alligator Wrangler Opening Southern Barbecue In Quincy

An alligator dragged a Myrtle Beach area resident into a pond and killed them in a Friday morning attack, local police said. Fire officials responded to a call in the Excalaber Court area outside Myrtle Beach at about 11:45 a.m. and removed both the victim and the alligator from the retention pond, police said in a Facebook post . Officials said the victim was "near the retention pond at the time of the initial incident" and that the alligator had "retreated into the retention pond" after taking hold of the local resident. A biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, along with an alligator-removal service contracted by the department, "determined that the alligator should be humanely euthanized on site," according to the Facebook post. The Horry County Police Department is investigating the death, the department said. The victim's gender and age were not immediately available. South Carolina is home to approximately 100,000 alligators, … [Read more...] about One dead in Myrtle Beach area after alligator attack

The woman killed in a fatal alligator attack in South Carolina was visiting a client for an in-home nail appointment when curiosity drew her to a nearby pond where she spotted the animal, according to a witness account in a sheriff's report released Tuesday. Cynthia Covert, 58, drowned after the alligator, which had grabbed a hold of her leg, pulled her under multiple times, Detective Keith Herriott of the Charleston County Sheriff's Office wrote in the report. South Carolina nail salons have been closed under state orders aimed to slow the spread of coronavirus, but Covert went to the Kiawah Island home of Barbara Howell on Friday to give the woman a manicure, Herriott said. The homeowner said Covert was acting strange and talking more than she does at the nail salon where she works. "She saw the alligator in the pond and was fascinated," the detective wrote of Howell's story. After completing the service, Covert took pictures of the alligator from a porch, the … [Read more...] about Woman killed in alligator attack was manicurist on a house call during South Carolina lockdown

A Florida deputy shot and killed a nearly 11-foot hissing alligator after it chased a teen girl up a tree. Jordan Broderick, 15, was floating on a raft in a creek near Alexander Springs Park in the Ocala National Forest where her family had been camping when the alligator approached on Friday. Jordan was unable to reach the shoreline as the alligator chased her. She scrambled up a tree where she clung, screaming as her parents called 911. "I'm at Freak Creek, my daughter is stuck in a freaking tree and there's gators surrounding her! We can't get her out! Please, she's 15," Jordan's mother pleaded to a dispatcher in audio obtained by NBC News . Through sobs, the mother, whose name is redacted, tells the dispatcher during the more than seven-minute call that there are gators on land and in the water surrounding Jordan. Toward the end of the call, the dispatcher tells the mother that it could take as long as 20 minutes for a marine unit to get to the area. The mother … [Read more...] about Florida deputy shoots alligator to save 15-year-old girl stuck in tree

Deputies in South Carolina shot and killed an alligator that fatally attacked a woman on Friday, authorities said. The officers were called to a pond on Kiawah Island around 5 p.m. and saw the animal attack, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said. The woman was already dead. A sheriff's deputy shot and killed the alligator and then retrieved its carcass to help in the ongoing investigation. About 5p today, deputies responded to pond near Salt Cedar Ln, Kiawah Island, for report of alligator encounter w/ a woman. The woman has died. A deputy fatally shot and retrieved the gator. @SCDNR & coroner also responded. Incident is still under investigation. #chsnews — ChasCoSheriff (@ChasCoSheriff) May 1, 2020 The woman's identity has not been released. Authorities did not say if they knew what the woman or the alligator were doing before the attack. This is the third fatal alligator attack in South Carolina in the past four years. A 90-year-old woman … [Read more...] about Woman dies in alligator attack at South Carolina pond