Fla: alligator hunting permits on sale |
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Tue, 12 Jun 2007 22:12
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Permits for alligator hunting season went on sale Tuesday.More than 4,500 permits will be available for the season set to run from Aug. 15 through Nov. 1, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.For sales through June 18, each hunter may purchase one permit allowing two kills. If permits are not sold out, sales will reopen June 19 for additional permits per hunter.Permits for Florida residents cost $271.50. Nonresidents will pay $1,021.50. The cost for each additional permit is $61.50 regardless of residency.Hunters killed 6,419 alligators during last year's 11-week season, a record for licensed kills, according to wildlife officials.The 2006 increase in kills was not unexpected since the state extended the season by about six weeks and changed regulations that allowed hunters to purchase more than one permit.Alligators were once nearly hunted to extinction. They were listed as a federally endangered species in 1967 and hunting was outlawed. Public licensed hunting didn't begin in Florida until 1988, a year after the alligator was removed from the endangered species list because its population had rebounded. Florida deems it a species of special concern, giving the state authority over management and control programs, but wildlife commissioners are now considering removing it altogether from the list of imperiled species.Biologists estimate there are now up to 2 million alligators in Florida.Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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