Is There Alligator Season in Florida? Dates, Permits, Penalties

Yes. Florida holds a statewide recreational alligator hunting season from August 15 through November 8 each year, managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).¹ Permits are issued by lottery, demand runs well past supply, and the rules on how you can actually take an alligator are tighter than most big-game hunting you’ve done elsewhere.

Season Dates and Hunting Hours

The season opens August 15 and closes November 8. Each permit holder is assigned an early harvest period — a one-week block falling between mid-August and mid-September — and also has access to the general period that runs September 12 through the close of the season.²

Most areas allow hunting 24 hours a day. A few don’t. The Stormwater Treatment Areas and A-1 FEB limit hunting to 5 p.m. through 10 a.m., and Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge restricts it to one hour before sunset through one hour after sunrise.¹

Getting a Permit

Roughly 7,000 alligator harvest permits are issued each year through a lottery.³ To apply, you must be at least 18 years old by August 15 of the hunting year and have a valid credit or debit card.⁴ There’s no application fee; your card is only charged if you’re drawn. Apply online at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com, at any county tax collector’s office, or at most retail outlets that sell hunting and fishing supplies.

The lottery runs in four phases. Phase I in May is open to everyone. Phase II, from mid-May to late May, is open to anyone not drawn in Phase I. Phase III, late May through mid-June, is open to anyone not drawn in Phase II. Phase IV starts in mid-June and runs until permits sell out — leftover permits on a first-come, first-served basis, open to everyone. If you already won a permit in an earlier phase, any additional Phase IV permit costs $62 regardless of residency.

What a Permit Costs

Each successful applicant gets an alligator trapping license, an area-specific harvest permit, and two CITES tags that authorize the harvest of two alligators. The package costs $272 for Florida residents, $1,022 for nonresidents, and $22 for residents who hold a Persons with Disabilities license.³ You do not need a separate Florida hunting or fishing license to participate.

Taking Help With You

Anyone 16 or older who actively helps you hunt needs their own alligator trapping agent license, which costs $52 regardless of residency. Youth 15 and under are exempt. Passengers who ride along without participating in the take don’t need any license. Agents can only work in your presence; they can’t hunt on their own.²

How You’re Allowed to Take an Alligator

You cannot walk up to the water with a rifle. The core rule: every projectile point must be attached to a restraining line. The alligator has to be secured before it’s dispatched.⁵

Legal gear includes bows, crossbows, and pre-charged pneumatic airbows with projectiles attached to restraining lines; harpoons, gigs, and spears attached to restraining lines; spearguns attached to restraining lines; fishing rods with weighted treble hooks or artificial lures; hand-line snatch hooks; and hand-held catch poles.

The only firearm permitted is a bang stick, and only after the alligator is already secured to a restraining line. Baited hooks are prohibited. If you want to use raw meat as bait, you must wrap it around a wooden peg less than two inches long, skip the hook entirely, and hold the other end of the line at all times. Explosive tips and drug-injecting tips are also prohibited.⁵

Each permit authorizes two alligators total. Only non-hatchlings may be taken.²

What to Do After You Kill One

Immediately after the kill, attach a CITES tag within six inches of the tip of the tail. Cut a slit through the tail, slide the tag through, lock it, and pull hard to confirm it’s locked.⁶ The tag stays on the hide until it is tanned, taxidermy mounted, or exported from the state.⁷

You must complete an Alligator Harvest Report Form within 24 hours of the take, or before dropping the animal at a processing facility, whichever comes first.⁸ You can file online. But if you transfer the alligator to a processor or anyone else, you must complete a hardcopy form before the transfer.⁶

Meat you keep for personal use has to be packaged and labeled in indelible ink with the CITES tag number and the license holder’s name on every package.²

Penalties for Getting It Wrong

Failing to file the required reports or return unused CITES tags is a Level One noncriminal infraction: $50 for a first offense, $250 if you’ve committed the same violation in the previous 36 months.

Taking or possessing alligators without a valid trapping license, or violating the tagging rules, is a Level Two violation and a second-degree misdemeanor on a first offense. A repeat within three years becomes a first-degree misdemeanor with mandatory minimum fines of $250 and then $500, and you can lose recreational hunting privileges for one to three years. Illegal sale or possession is a Level Three violation with stiffer misdemeanor and potential felony exposure for repeats.⁹

Anyone convicted of illegally taking a crocodilian can be barred from receiving an alligator trapping license for five years. If the species was endangered, such as the American crocodile, the ban runs ten.¹⁰

Nuisance Alligators Are a Different Program

If your question is about a specific alligator causing trouble near your home rather than hunting one for sport, that’s handled separately through the Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program. Call the FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286) and a contracted trapper will be dispatched. Don’t try to capture or remove the animal yourself.¹¹

1
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Where and When to Hunt
2
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 68A-25.042 Regulations Governing Statewide Alligator Trapping, Permitting, Taking and Sale
3
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Alligator Licenses and Permits
4
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Statewide Alligator Hunt Permit
5
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Methods for Harvesting an Alligator
6
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. After the Harvest
7
Legal Information Institute (LII). Regulations Governing the Processing of Alligators and Sale of Alligator Meat, Carcasses, and Parts
8
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Statewide Alligator Harvest Program
9
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 379.401 – Penalties
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Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 379.3751 – Taking and Possession of Alligators; Trapping Licenses; Fees
11
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program