Greg HilburnShreveport Times
Aug. 20, 2026, 8:40 a.m. CT
How to win a license for Louisiana’s first alligator hunt?
- Louisiana will hold a lottery for its first-ever recreational alligator hunting season this October.
- Up to 5,000 licenses will be available for state residents, with each winner allowed to harvest two alligators.
- This new recreational season is intended to manage the state’s growing alligator population, now over 3 million.
- Unlike commercial hunters, recreational participants will be limited to using a hook and line from land.
A lottery to participate in Louisiana’s first recreational alligator hunting season opens Aug. 20 with a maximum 5,000 licenses available for state residents.
Each winning hunter will be eligible to bag two alligators during the statewide season from Oct. 1-31.
Senate Bill 244 by Republican Franklin Sen. Robert Allain authorized the Louisiana Wildlife Commission to establish the season i n 2026. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill into law.
“I’m proud to have helped expand recreational hunting opportunities here in our Sportsman’s Paradise,” Allain said. “We’re offering a new way to address nuisance or overabundant alligators while still maintaining our important commercial alligator industry and controlled harvest limits.”
Louisiana already has a commercial hunting season for alligators, which is chronicled in the popular “Swamp People” TV reality series, but this is the first chance for recreational hunters to participate.
“We think the time is right,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Tyler Bosworth said in a previous interview with USA Today Network. “We want to provide a recreational opportunity for the common folk of Louisiana.”
Recreational hunters are limited to hook and line harvesting from land. No gators can be taken by boat as commercial hunters are allowed to do.
Louisiana’s alligator population has exploded in the past 50 years from fewer than 100,000 to more than 3 million today. Of those, about 2 million are wild with another 1 million farmed.
That’s at least twice the population in Florida, the state with the second most number of alligators.
And their Louisiana numbers have grown throughout the state, where they can be commonly spotted from Lake Martin in Breaux Bridge to Caddo and Cross lakes in Shreveport to Caldwell Parish in northeastern Louisiana.
“This is a conservation success story on the highest level,” LDWF general counsel Garrett Cole testified during a legislative hearing on the bill.Whooping crane comeback: Whooping cranes make comeback in Louisiana with record number of chicks
Recreational alligator lottery applications are only be available on the LDWF licensing website. Those wanting to apply should click on the Lottery Applications tab, update or create their customer details similar to purchasing a license and then submit an application for the zone that they wish to hunt.
There is a non-refundable $50 application fee for each zone application submitted. Hunters may apply for and win a harvest opportunity for more than one zone, but there will be an application fee for each zone applied for. Applicants must be legal Louisiana residents, 16 or older and meet all hunter education requirements.
If selected, hunters will be required to purchase a Resident Alligator Sports Hunter License ($25). To assist applicants with their selection(s), LDWF has posted a map and descriptions of the recreational harvest zones on its website.