Enormous 'Cow-Killer' Reptile Shot Dead

Nine-year-old Mason Lightsey is pictured with a 800-pound (363 kg) giant alligator caught at his father Lee Lightsey's farm in Venus, Florida in this April 2, 2016 handout photo released on April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Lee Lightsey/Outwest Farms, Inc.

Wildlife officials have said a "monster" alligator killed in Florida falls short of the state record.
A photograph of the dead reptile went viral after it was posted on Facebook by the owner of a hunting farm in Okeechobee.
Lee Lightsey told local media he and hunting guide, Blake Godwin, spotted the alligator in one of the farm's cattle ponds at the weekend.
They believed the gator was killing livestock on the property and Mr Lightsey shot it on 2 April.
Mr Godwin said it was the largest alligator ever killed on the hunting farm, estimating it at nearly 15ft (4.5m ) and more than 800 pounds (363kg).
But a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) told Reuters on Wednesday the gator weighed 780 pounds and was short of the state record for length.
"A big alligator nonetheless, but they are not going to have an official measurement because it's not going to beat the record," Tony Young said.
He said the longest alligator caught in the wild in Florida measured at 14ft 3.5in (4.35m).
The state record for the heaviest gator taken from the wild is 1,043 pounds, according to FWC records.
Mr Lightsey and Mr Godwin were forced to fend off claims the photograph was part of an April Fools' joke.
Mr Godwin told WTVT the picture, which included Mr Lightsey's nine-year-old daughter standing next to the massive reptile, was taken with a smartphone and immediately uploaded to Facebook.
Hunters in Alabama bagged a world record-breaking alligator in 2014 that measured 15ft 9in (4.8m) and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (453kg).
Source: http://news.sky.com/

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