Meet the Record-Breaking Alligators: A Look at the Top 9 Largest

Largest Alligators
Rod Zadeh/Shutterstock.com

Written by Heather Hall

Updated: February 8, 2025

Share on:

Advertisement


Native to the southeastern United States, the alligator is one of the world’s largest reptiles, and how big it gets is surprising. Typically, alligators grow to between 400 pounds and 800 pounds, with a length of over eight feet. However, some can achieve sizes much greater than this. So, just which are the largest alligators? We’ve ranked the largest alligators by weight so let’s jump in and discover them!

#9 The Robert Ammerman Alligator

LengthWeightYearLocation
14 feet 3.5 inches654 pounds2017Florida

Noted alligator hunter Robert Ammerman landed this gator in December 2017. Just glancing at the alligator’s head told Ammerman all he needed to know. The angry gator dragged the boat for 45 minutes while Ammerman tried to catch it. Weighing a hefty 654 pounds and having a length of 14 feet 3.5 inches, the catch was so big he couldn’t load it into his boat. The only way to get it on land was by towing it to shore.

#8 The Tom Grant Alligator

Alligator at Everglades National Park, Florida
Alligators are ubiquitous in the Florida Everglades and Mississippi Delta.
LengthWeightYearLocation
13 feet 1.5 inches697.5 pounds2012Mississippi

Tom Grant is a famous alligator explorer, and in 2012 he and his team actually went head-to-head with a gator that would end up in the record books as one of the largest. The huge animal weighed 697.5 pounds and was 13 feet 1.5 inches long. One of the hunters, Kenny Winter, said the gator broke the boat’s winch and it took an hour and a half to get it back to shore. The team ended up with a massive reptile with a measured belly girth of 65 inches. This catch was definitely a find as alligators of that length weren’t common in the Mississippi Delta.

#7 The Blake Godwin and Lee Lightsey Alligator

LengthWeightYearLocation
15 feet800 pounds2016Florida

This 15-foot alligator drew attention by leaving the remains of missing cattle in the water around the area. It was found in a nearby cattle pond at Outwest Farms when Lee Lightsey spotted it. The locals at Okeechobee, Florida had to use a farm tractor to pull the animal out of the water. Blake Godwin, one of Lightsey’s guides, was present for the measuring. Afterward, he said, “It is hard to believe that something this big exists in the wild.” The two hunters gave the meat to charity and taxidermied the rest of the carcass.

#6 Big Tex

LengthWeightYearLocation
13 feet 8.5 inches900 pounds1996Texas

This alligator actually had a name as he roamed the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge. He was called Big Tex and apparently stopped fearing humans, which created serious issues among the local populace. He was finally lassoed and relocated. The refuge where he was taken measured the creature, promptly calling Big Tex the biggest alligator in Texas history caught alive. They transferred Big Tex to an exhibit area in Gator Country. He became a popular attraction at the adventure park/rescue facility. One of his habitat mates is Big Al, another giant at 13 feet 4 inches and 1,000 pounds.

#5 The Lane Stephens Alligator

American alligator chilling
In 2012, Lane Stephens captured a 14-foot-long alligator in Florida.
LengthWeightYearLocation
14 feetApprox 1,000 pounds2012Florida

There was a massive gator roaming a Florida neighborhood, described by local homeowners as a “nuisance.” Local alligator trapper Lane Stephens decided to go after it. He’d legally harvested over two dozen gators that year alone, pulling in four over 11 feet. Stephens snagged the gator with a baited hook, roped it, and ended the battle with a clean kill. In total, he and the gator fought for three and a half hours. Throughout, he marveled at the size of the beast. Neighbors had said it was big, but Stephens didn’t expect the alligator to be a length of 14 feet or to weigh around 1,000 pounds.

#4 The Apalachicola Giant

Alligator Lifespan - Alligator front view
With how still alligators can lay, it’s no surprise that Capps was able to spear it.
LengthWeightYearLocation
13 feet1,008 pounds2020Florida

Corey Capps dreamt of bringing down the behemoth of an alligator haunting his home in Blountstown. One day he was on a boat ride when he spotted the gator on the bank. Capps got his buddy, Rodney Smith, on the line. Smith had a legal tag for going after the animal, so the pair went out the next day and harpooned the giant. Using a Jon boat, it took almost four hours to move the gator just 100 feet which is not surprising as the beast weighed in at an impressive 1,008 pounds.

#3 The Mandy Stokes Alligator

Lake Eufaula
The Mandy Stokes alligator had a length of 15 feet and 9 inches.
LengthWeightYearLocation
15 feet 9 inches1,011.5 pounds2014Alabama

Mandy Stokes was a hunter of boars and deer and never planned to go one-on-one with a gator. But one day she and her family did go on a gator hunt. On that fateful first trip, she bagged this giant and took on the gator for almost a full day. The battle took place at a tributary of the Alabama River, and the Stokes family was on a 17-foot aluminum vessel. After setting the first hook, they struggled to hold onto the beast, and it wasn’t until the following morning that Stokes got a clear shot.

The Stokes clan had to figure out how to bring the captured alligator back as they had failed to get it into the boat. The family eventually lashed it to the hull. With the boat on the verge of tipping, everyone stayed on the opposite gunwale to counter the weight.

With a weight of 1,011.5 pounds, the huge animal broke the winch locals used to weigh gators. The Stokes alligator is now on display in Camden at the Millers Ferry Powerhouse.

#2 The Alligator Skull

alligator skull isolated on white background stock photo
Scientists can determine an alligator’s size by its skull.
LengthWeightYearLocation
13 feet 10 inches1,043 pounds2020Florida

An alligator skull was discovered in 2020 that likely belonged to one of the largest alligators on record. It remains one of the largest skulls found in the state of Florida. Using the 29 1/2-inch length of the skull, investigators were able to determine the beast was 13 feet 10 inches and had an estimated weight of 1,043 pounds.

#1 The Mike Cottingham Alligator

Largest Alligators
The largest alligator weighed an estimated 1,380 pounds

.

LengthWeightYearLocation
13 feet 3 inches1,380 pounds2012Arkansas

During an outing with a private hunting club, Mike Cottingham immediately realized this monster was a record-breaking beast. After catching it, it took five people to lift it into the boat. After examining the alligator, a local herpetologist estimated the animal to be nearly 36 years old. The huge beast weighed 1,380 pounds, meaning it comes in at the number one spot on our list. The proud hunter said he planned to mount the head and use the rest of the alligator to make himself a fine pair of boots.

BONUS: The 19-Foot Legend & More Tales of Giants

Of course, there are legends of freakishly huge gators, and although they remain unconfirmed, it does make us wonder if the Cottingham alligator record will one day be broken officially.

The Biggest (Unconfirmed) Gator Ever

There is the unconfirmed tale of a trusted environmentalist discovering the largest alligator of all time, with it reportedly coming in at 19 feet 2 inches. Ned McIlhenny was, at the time, the most famous (and one of the first) environmentalists. In 1890, McIlhenny shot a sizable gator that was dying of exposure. He measured the gator using his gun barrel, and with the 30-inch barrel, he established the alligator was an amazing 19 feet 2 inches.

McIlhenny’s family has their share of gator adventures as well. It’s said his uncle captured the largest alligator of all time in 1886. To show off the catch, John put the gator on a ship bound for Philadelphia. Sadly, during the voyage, the creature died, and the crew decided it was a waste to travel with a dead gator so they threw it overboard.

Louisiana’s Marsh Island Gator

In the 19th century, game warden Max Touchet allegedly took on a large alligator on Louisiana’s Marsh Island. He and a colleague lassoed the animal and pulled it out of a gatorhole. Unfortunately, they were several miles from land and couldn’t move the struggling beast. They killed and skinned it. After, they brought back the skin, and, upon examining it, they determined the gator measured 17 feet 10 inches and likely weighed around 1,000 pounds. However, that’s likely an inaccurate number because alligator skins shrink when they are removed.

alligator with its mouth hanging open
Any standing body of water in Florida could house a gator, making swamps, rivers, lakes, and drainage pools all potentially dangerous.

Mysterious Footage

In 2017, a Lochness-type video taken in Florida’s Polk County Discovery Center appears to be of a monstrous gator. Conservationists and biologists believe the video is real and the alligator is at least 14 feet long.

Another classic video of a giant alligator took place on the green of Florida’s Buffalo Creek Gold Club. It strolled across the third hole, heading leisurely for a lake. Guestimates put the animal at about 15 feet long, which would make it well over 1,000 pounds.

Is it Normal for Alligators to Grow Large?

You may be wondering if it’s normal for these animals to get extraordinarily large. It’s important to note that alligators are a certain species of reptile that are just naturally big. The American alligator can be up to 14 feet long, for example, and weighs over 1,000 pounds. This is a result of their evolutionary history and origins. With that said, not all alligators will grow to be this big.

Additionally, some alligators may just be genetically predisposed to be bigger or smaller than the next. This can be influenced by factors such as the size of their parents or specific genetic traits that they have inherited. So, while alligators are naturally large animals, the size to which they grow can vary based on a variety of factors.


Share this post on:
About the Author

Heather Hall

Heather Hall is a writer at A-Z Animals, where her primary focus is on plants and animals. Heather has been writing and editing since 2012 and holds a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture. As a resident of the Pacific Northwest, Heather enjoys hiking, gardening, and trail running through the mountains with her dogs.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?