By the time Arkansas’ two-weekend alligator season wrapped up in the predawn light on Sept. 29 hunters had tallied 205 alligators. The figure narrowly edged out the previous record of 202 in 2023. According to Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Herpetologist Amanda Bryant, hunters surpassed the initial quota of 204 with one additional harvest.
“We’re really happy with the outcome this year,” Bryant said. “We always want 100 percent of the quota to be filled, so it’s great when that happens. The quota is exceeded when multiple hunters take an animal in the same night and only one or two animals remain to close the season. It’s pretty common. We set the quota a few animals short of the total needed harvest with this in mind.”
Hunters on public land filled 26 of the 38 drawn public land tags available. The success rate of 68 percent was an improvement over last year’s 58 percent hunter success on public land.
“Almost every hunter who puts in some time on the water in Arkansas’s public alligator hunting areas will see a legal alligator to harvest. Getting within snare or harpoon range can be tricky, especially with some of the larger ones,” Bryant said. “And a lot of unfilled tags are the result of hunters holding out for a larger alligator and running out of time; but hunters were actually more successful this year than last year.”
This year’s Millwood Lake hunt totaled seven checked alligators, leaving two tags open at the end of the first year of this area’s quota hunt. “We tried to get the harvest a little higher there with the addition of the quota, hoping more hunters would mean people wouldn’t pass up on opportunities,” Bryant said. “Seven of the nine possible checks is slightly better than last year, but we’d really like to see that harvest goal reached in the future.”
On private land, Alligator Management Zone 3 in southeast Arkansas had the most successful hunters, with 106 checked during the two weekends of the hunt. Hunters in Alligator Management Zone 1 in southwest Arkansas checked 69 alligators, and hunters in south-central Arkansas (Alligator Management Zone 2) harvested four.
“Zone 2 doesn’t have as much habitat for alligators and has a smaller quota for private land hunters,” Bryant said. “It was the only zone to remain open on the last night of the hunt. Zone 3 closed two days before the end of the hunt, and Zone 1 closed with one night remaining in the scheduled hunting season.”
