Copyright WEAU
GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) - While on maternity leave, a South Carolina mother of two caught a 12-foot, 597-pound alligator, earning herself the nickname “Gator Girl.” Brittany and Matt Livingston were the talk of South Carolina after video showed a 12-foot alligator in the couple’s pickup truck as they went through a McDonald’s drive-thru in West Ashley in September. “We had a lot of eyes on us,” the Livingstons said. “People were waving, giving thumbs up… even the workers at McDonald’s came outside to see it.” The couple say the story behind that viral moment is more than a trophy tale: it’s a family tradition. It’s also the result of years of patience and planning. Brittany Livingston had been applying for a South Carolina alligator hunting tag for five years through the state’s alligator hunting season lottery system. This year, her name was finally drawn in Unit 4, which covers the Pee Dee. “You gain preference points each year,” she said. “This year, I finally had enough.” Each season, more than 12,000 people apply for just 1,400 available tags. The limited system, run by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, is designed to keep alligator populations healthy and sustainable. “The goal is not to eliminate alligators,” said Jay Butfiloski, the state’s former alligator program coordinator. “It’s to allow some harvest, which helps manage the population and reduce nuisance issues.” For the Livingstons, the hunt for the 12-foot, 597-pound alligator was a wild ride, but after hours of fighting the massive reptile, a final shot rang out just after 3 a.m. With the catch, Brittany Livingston earned herself the new nickname “Gator Girl” – and she did it all while on maternity leave. “Not something most people do on maternity leave,” she said. “But yeah.” The family named their alligator “Chomp Norris.” They plan to make a full-body rug out of it and fill their freezer with gator sausage and snack sticks. “It tastes like chicken,” Brittany Livingston joked. After the hunt, the Livingstons brought their gator to Cordray’s, a Lowcountry family business that’s been processing wild game for generations. There, workers turned it into more than 100 pounds of meat products and preserved it for display. “We wouldn’t hunt anything if we weren’t going to eat it,” Matt Livingston said. “We respect the wildlife just as much, and we want it to still be here for our kids.” The couple’s two children, ages 3 years and 5 months, were on the boat that night, watching as their parents wrangled what they call a “modern-day dinosaur.” “I’m sure they’ll never forget it,” Matt Livingston said. “I can’t imagine them going to school that next week and telling their friends they helped catch a dinosaur.” Brittany “Gator Girl” Livingston’s story has captured the wild heart of South Carolina, where family, fun and love of the outdoors all run deep. “To see it in the back of the truck, to know it was ours, it was exhilarating,” she said. “This is my alligator.” This year, the South Carolina alligator hunting season ran from the second Saturday in September through the second Saturday in October. Only 438 alligators were harvested statewide.
