Nine-year-old Mason Lightsey is pictured with an 800-pound giant alligator caught at his father Lee Lightsey's farm in Venus, Florida on April 2, 2016. (Reuters/Lee Lightsey photo)
By Barbara Liston
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - A 780-pound "monster" alligator slain in a Florida hunt and hauled out of the water with a farm tractor falls short of the state record for length, a wildlife official said on Wednesday.
"A big alligator nonetheless, but they are not going to have an official measurement because it's not going to beat the record," Tony Young, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said in a phone interview.
The longest alligator caught in the wild in Florida was measured at 14 feet 3-1/2 inches, he said. The state record for the heaviest gator taken from the wild is 1,043 pounds, according to the commission's...