Like almost a half million hunters in Minnesota who woke up on Nov. 7, Cory Klocek was hoping to see and shoot a nice buck on the state’s opening day of the 2020 gun season. No hunter was thinking of shooting an alligator, or even seeing one! Who ever does that in Minnesota? Turns out, the actual odds were one in a half million.
Klocek was hunting the East Bethel area (Anoka County) about 40 miles north of Minneapolis. As he raised his shotgun and took aim, his dream of a 10-point buck was coming true. His shot was good, and as he followed up to claim his antlered prize he spotted something truly strange for “the Land of 10,000 Lakes” — 10,000 cold lakes! A 3-foot alligator in a small pond!
An Alligator!
What does a Minnesota deer hunter think when he sees an alligator? Maybe it’s made of plastic or rubber. Maybe it’s someone’s toy. Or maybe someone is playing a joke. Then it moves, slowly because it’s a warm weather reptile in the cold north country. Mix those thoughts in the head of a guy who just collected a nice trophy buck and he has to wonder if he’s hallucinating. But no, it was a real alligator, even if it was a little lethargic in the low-40s temperature.
Klocek found himself about 10 feet from the ’gator and wondered what to do. Before even recovering his buck, he called the landowner, Lisa Musker. She owns a small whitetail facility that harvests deer urine, and her property joins a couple of other properties belonging to a friend and a family member of Musker where Klocek has permission to hunt.
READ: COULD A ‘GATOR EAT A WHOLE DEER AT ONE TIME?
“What?” she said. Musker was just as surprised as Klocek. Yes, a real live ’gator. Then he called the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and a local conservation officer told him to shoot the reptile. Cory’s next call was to an army buddy from Louisiana to ask where to shoot it. “Right between the eyes with a .22. A bullet to the brain will kill any ’gator.”
So he went to Lisa’s house and borrowed her .22. By the time he got back to the pond, the ’gator was still there but an inch or so under the water. And that’s how Cory Klocek came home with two trophies, a nice buck every hunter dreams of, and an alligator no hunter would expect to see.
Two Mysteries Remain
First, how did an alligator end up in the cold north country? While no one has admitted it, the toothy lizard had probably been a pet that had grown too big to keep, so its owner released it and hoped for the best for this cold-blooded creature. At least when it died it would be out of sight and out of mind, for the owner anyway.
No other explanation makes any sense. It certainly didn’t swim up the Mississippi River from the Louisiana bayou, or emerge from the mud at the bottom of a Minnesota lake, or suddenly evolve from some other reptilian species. Whatever its origin, an alligator is not native to Minnesota so it’s an invasive species there. Klocek later learned that back in 2014 another alligator was found in the area, so it’s not the first captive that was released in less than ideal, and in fact, illegal circumstances.
The other mystery is this. Why do social media dwellers who know virtually nothing about wildlife management science think they should pronounce ethical judgment on responsible hunters? Given the emotion and irrationality of anti-hunters, that’s likely to continue. Some called Klocek a poacher, and worse. He has even received death threats.
The fact is that Klocek did the responsible thing both by alerting the Minnesota DNR, and by killing the alligator. Every outdoorsman needs to protect wildlife habitat from invasive plants and animals. Some say this alligator was going to die anyway, so why shoot it? The reason is that the manner of death isn’t the issue. The issue is that it was humanely dispatched before it could do potential harm to other animals and then suffer and die in the cold Minnesota weather. Klocek did the right thing, despite criticisms lodged against him.
The Year of the Covid Connection
Some say this could only happen in 2020, the year of Covid, and believe it or not, the virus did play a secondary role. Normally on the opening day of the gun season Cory hunts with his father in a rifle area, but this year his father had Covid. Cory’s own son, a year and a half old now, has had some health problems so Cory elected for the first time not to hunt with his dad. His best option was to hunt on the Musker property, which is in a shotgun area.
Minnesota has a proud hunting tradition and a proud sports tradition with team names that include Vikings, Timberwolves, Lynx and other denizens of the cold north, but if some of those 10,000 lakes could keep from freezing, could a team be named the Minnesota Gators?
While that’s not likely, and no one is likely to know how the lizard got there, two things are for sure. First, Cory Klocek will have a full shoulder mount of the buck with its ears back, looking down and to its right at the alligator. From a comfy spot in some muddy Minnesota sawgrass, the alligator will be staring up at the buck with its jaws open. (And maybe even be a tattoo of that in his future!)
Then, around the time he gets the mount back from his taxidermist, Klocek will host his own Surf and Turf Barbeque, Louisiana Style, from Minnesota’s 2020 deer season opener.
— Steve Sorensen (aka “The Everyday Hunter®”) is an avid deer hunter from Pennsylvania and is a frequent sportsman’s dinner speaker.
