PEMBROKE PARK, Fla – A giant gator killed during a guided hunt on a Florida farm could be one of the largest on record in the state.
Outwest Farms in Okeechobee posted a picture of the dead gator on its Facebook page Saturday. The picture showed the gator's carcass strung up on a John Deere front-end loader with a chain around its neck.
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The post stated that the gator measured just shy of 15 feet.
Because the picture was posted so close to April Fool's Day, many commenters speculated that the photograph wasn't real or had been altered to make the gator appear larger than it was in real life.
"I'm curious...has the fish and game been notified to record the measurements to make it an official state record???? Since this is close to April Fools Day and photo shop of stuff like this is always on FB...just saying," Nelda Hall Erwin wrote.
"That almost looks photoshopped. Unreal," Peggy Middleton Simmons wrote.
However, most commenters seemed to believe that the gator was real.
Other pictures on the farm's Facebook page posted on the same day show several hunters posing with their gator kills.
A search of the Florida Memory website, which houses the state's photo archives, shows that the largest gator officially recorded in Florida was 17 1/2 feet.