Florida hunters claim to kill 'monster' 800-pound alligator

They thought they had caught the big one.

Two Florida hunters who announced earlier this week that they had caught a 15-foot alligator, which would have been the state's largest, are now walking back their historical claim.

Lee Lightsey, owner of Outwest Farms, and Blake Godwin, his hunting guide, told Florida's Fox 13 News on Tuesday that they had shot and killed a wild alligator that measured just under 15-feet-long and weighed approximately 800 pounds. 

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"It is hard to believe that something this big exists in the wild," said Godwin of the gator, which was seen hanging from a tractor on the farm's Facebook page.

But after speaking with hunting officials from the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the men are reportedly no longer convinced they caught a record-breaker.

Lightsey, a spokesperson told Mashable, "has indicated that the alligator was not big enough to surpass the current record."

"It is not unusual for large, male alligators of this size to be harvested each year as part of Florida’s Alligator Management Program," said Tony Young, a media relations coordinator at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Division of Hunting and Game Management.

He said the record stands at 14 feet, 3 1/2 inches, meaning Tuesday's catch was even smaller than initially claimed.

Commenters on the farm's Facebook page, for their part, were doubtful from the start.

Some accused the hunters of using Photoshop, while others said they employed a perception trick to make the alligator appear bigger.

Godwin denied that in interviews, but on Wednesday, he, or someone at the farm, removed the photo of the now-puny gator from its page.

This story was updated at 1 p.m. ET with new information from Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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