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 highly valuable commercial industry that provides more than $250m annually to Louisiana’s economy,” the Louisiana department of wildlife and fisheries (LWF) said in a statement accompanying details of the hunt.

Applicants have until Monday to enter a lottery for up to two per person of 5,000 tags that will allow them to hunt an alligator, with state residents paying $25 and visitors $150 for each zone they visit, on top of a $50 application fee.

The hunt has been designated strictly non-commercial, meaning that those who trap one cannot sell the meat or skin. Applicants must already possess a basic hunting license issued by LWF, and are restricted to hook and line trapping, meaning they cannot use poles or other methods favored by poachers.

Firearms can only be used to kill captured alligators, not for shooting free-swimming reptiles.

The hunt brings Louisiana broadly into line with Florida, another state that said its conservation programs allowed alligator numbers to recover to the point where recreational hunting is permitted.

Florida introduced a similarly regulated statewide program in 1988.