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Alligator hunters post successful 2024 season in Louisiana, LDWF may extend 2025 season
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BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) -- The 2024 alligator season in Louisiana was a successful one, according to numbers released by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Louisiana hunters just wrapped up an alligator season in which 32,335 alligators have been reported harvested to date — making 2024 the highest harvest total since 2016.
According to LDWF, Louisiana’s wild alligator population has increased from less than 100,000 to more than 2 million in the past 50 years. That's nearly three times the gator population of Florida, the state with the second-most alligators.
There are also nearly 1 million alligators on farms in Louisiana.
The alligator population has has rebounded so much that the Louisiana Wildlife Commission approved a notice of intent to extend the season for 2025. The proposal would set the East Zone season from the last Wednesday in August until Dec. 31 and the West Zone season from the first Wednesday in September until Dec. 31. That would expand the current 60-day season in both zones.
Currently, nearly 2,900 licensed alligator hunters participate in the annual harvest. During the history of the program, the annual harvest has averaged around 24,000 alligators with a high of 36,301 alligators harvested in 2014, LDWF said.