Very large gator

[Lauderdale]

A friend of mine sent me this.  It didn't get this big by eating poodles. 

The gator was found between Orlando and Titusville, near Anita and Charlie Rogers house.
They could hear it bellowing at night and their neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator in the waterway that runs behind their house, but they dismissed the stories as exaggerations.

Friday they realized the stories were, if anything, understated when he spotted it crawling through his back yard.
Florida Parks and Wildlife game wardens had to shoot the beast.   Joe Goff, 6'5" tall, a game Warden with the Florida Parks and Wildlife Department, walks past a 23-foot, 1-inch alligator that he shot and killed.

 

[Understudy]

First dibs on my new pair of boots.
That is an awesome pic.

 

[dlybrand]

Wow. That is quite large. I, too, would like a new pair of boots.

-D. Lybrand

 

[rattler]

trick photography. its not as large as it appears. decent sized gator though. this pic has been circulating for 3 years or more i think

 

[dlybrand]

Is the gator a lot closer to the camera than the officer or something?

-D. Lybrand

 

[EntwinedScylla]

Something looks quite wrong about the key places where the gator should "attach" to the background. I'd say it's forced perspective, or a photoshop. Crocs get that big, and bigger... but certain features also go with advanced age.

 

[seedjar]

Yeah, the shadows just don't look quite right on this one. None of the croc's shadow is visible, despite the high angle of all the other shadows. Plus there's a feathered seam around the croc, which shows up like a slight white glow - look at where it's head and back join the background. I think it's belly scales look wrong too; they're reflecting the color of the trees where it looks like they should be darker. Fun! It's just like those "What's wrong with this picture?" puzzles.
~Joe

 

[scottychaos]

and its tail isnt touching the ground..
I agree..its faked.

Scot

 

[Dyflam]

Some info on gators including the largest recorded...

Gator Info

 

[Barry-Rice]

Snopes.com has this file in their "undetermined" category. While agreeing that it looks like an image with distorted perspective, they quote a much more realistic THIRTEEN feet and one inch.

The change of 13 feet 1 inch, to 23 feet 1 inch, is just silly.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/wcgator.asp

Barry

 

[JBL]

Quote[/b] (scottychaos @ Mar. 22 2006,12:29)]and its tail isnt touching the ground..

C'mon scot...everyone knows the twelve foot tall bearded hermaphrodite is holding its tail up!

 

[larry]

100% Photoshopped. Shadows look wrong, tail not touching the ground. It's a dead gator, but the tail curves up!

Good effort though.

 

[glider14]

ya the photo has been doctored like the "biggest dog" photo
alex

 

[Lauderdale]

I agree that something is just not "right" about the photo and if it was real there would have been much more press coverage about a new record gator.

I have seen gators of at least fifteen feet but I am just not buying a twenty three footer.

Quote[/b] ]Never get closer than 15 feet (5 meters) to an alligator.

I don't know who came up with that figure but if you have ever seen how "quick" they can move, it is waaay to close for me.

We have averaged about one death a year down here lately and God only knows how many attacks.  So it is much safer to swim in the ocean.  But then our Saltwater Corocodile population is on the increase and those guys are very agressive......I really like our heated pool at the Condo.

 

[PlantAKiss]

Its funny how these days if anyone posts an unusual photo, then it MUST have been PhotoShopped. Its much harder to doctor a photo to the point where you cannot tell its been done than you think. Try it yourself sometime. There are a lot of factors that play into how well you alter an image including the background of the photo, the skill of artist and the amount of time you have.

Somehow I just can't see someone spending a lot time to fake a photo of a "really large alligator." No matter what it measures, you can tell that's a BIG alligator.

I don't understand why they had to shoot it.

 

[larry]

Check out http://www.worth1000.com/ People doctor photos/images for fun, showing off their Photoshop skills.  I can easily see someone spending time doctoring up the alligator photo.  It's a great ego boost to the artist if people believe his/her work is the real deal.

 

[rattler]

the belly scales look wrong cause i bet its been gutted. actually i think its trick photography rather than photoshopped. as in the gator is closer to the camera than the officer

as to photoshop pictures looking real. if someone is bored and good with the program you would be surprised. a teacher of mine went in for surgery for cancer while i was in highschool so a couple buddies of mine spent a couple hours making a picture of him standing next to Pamela Anderson as a get well card to cheer him up. needless to say after a few hours work and being darn picky about what pictures we used it looked pretty darn close to being real. the teacher loved the photo

 

[scottychaos]

Quote[/b] (PlantAKiss @ Mar. 23 2006,3:42)]Its funny how these days if anyone posts an unusual photo, then it MUST have been PhotoShopped.  

not true..
only the ones that LOOK fake are automatically assumed to be photoshopped!

which was the case here..

Scot

 

[The Griffin]

Barry mentioned snopes, which everyone should have bookmarked. I would say out of 100 emails that people send me with a photo or a story, 99 of them turn out to be false.
Pretty sad, really. Most of the people who fall prey to these just want to help somebody.

Cheers,

Joe

 

[ZAK]

Yes you have to love snopes, it's definately the best, even if you don't make $25,000 from forwarding Microsoft emails