How big is chester the alligator?

Answer 1

Chester the Alligator, who resides at Gatorland park in Orlando, Florida, is a magnificent animal that I was privileged to be the primary keeper of in 2005 and 2006. Chester was captured in the Tampa, Florida area after entering a neighborhood and allegedly eating two domestic dogs. Entertainment Director Mike Hileman and I measured him in March, 2006; he taped at 13 ft, 4.5 in/ 4.05 m. He is probably more than 40 years old, and, as larger, older alligators tend to grow ever more slowly, he has probably grown by only an inch or two since then. He weighed about 940 lbs. when he entered the park a few years before my time there, and, being that he is so well-fed, he probably weighs approximately 1,100 lbs/ 499 kg. He is certainly one of the largest American alligators in captivity in the world, probably among the top ten largest. Interestingly, he is still well shy of the contemporary record for a wild alligator, which is 14.5 ft/ 4.42 m (which is well short of the record length of the species documented in the late 1800s: 19 ft, 2 in/ 5.8 m.!). - By Israel Dupont (LivingAmongAlligators.com)