Louisiana gears up for first recreational alligator hunt in more than 50 years

State to offer up to 5,000 trappers chance to snare reptiles whose numbers have risen to 3m from fewer than 100,000 The first recreational alligator hunt in Louisiana in more than half a century is about to commence in the swamps of that state, with up to 5,000 hopeful trappers facing strict rules in order to snare a reptile. The state’s fish and wildlife commission banned alligator hunting in 1962 to allow the species to recover after decades of unregulated killings for meat and hides dropped numbers there to below 100,000. Now, with the population above an estimated 3 million in the wild, Louisiana is issuing public permits to licensed hunters for a month-long season beginning 1 October, across eight zones statewide. Although alligator hunting has taken place since an outright 10-year ban ended in 1972, it had been restricted to tightly regulated commercial harvesting, making this the first time the public has been able to legally snare for fun or sport a creature embedded in Louisiana’s culture and history. “Louisiana now has a robust alligator resource capable of providing sustainable recreational harvest opportunities to Louisiana residents without negatively impacting a highl