10-Year-Old Ella Hawk Kills Record-Setting 13-Foot, 800-Pound Alligator With Her Crossbow

Ten-year-old Ella Hawk of Huffman, Texas, used a crossbow to shoot and kill a monster 13-foot, 800-pound alligator. Ella’s monster trophy now ranks number one in the database of the Trophy Game Records of the World.

Ella killed the beast on the Guadalupe River near Victoria, Texas, about half a mile from the U.S. Highway 77 on Sunday, September 27.

She killed the alligator with a shot from her crossbow. She was barely 15 yards away when she shot an arrow from her crossbow that hit the monster just above the eyes.

The arrow paralyzed the alligator and killed it at once.

Her parents cheered at the moment she scored a perfect shot with her crossbow.

According to her father, Tony Hawk, Ella was calm and composed when she confronted the 800-pound beast.

“I was more nervous than her before the shot,” Tony said. “She had nerves of steel before the shot. She’s just gifted like that, I guess.”

“I wasn’t nervous,” Ella told the Victoria Advocate. “The first shot paralyzed and killed him.”

Ryan Longer, of Longer Outdoors, the guide who accompanied Ella and her father on the trip, described Ella’s trophy as “the pinnacle of the year.”

“I’ve gone several years without even getting a 12-foot (alligator). I don’t know how it happened or why it happened, and this is probably my pinnacle for the year.”

“It could have been a rodeo,” Longer said. “It worked out in all aspects. It was like a crocodile hunt in Africa.”

After the first shot, Ella shot two more arrows and then fired a single shot from a .243 pistol to ensure that the animal had died.

One arrow and a bullet hit the alligator on the same spot as the original crossbow arrow.

“She Robin-Hooded it. I have more confidence in her than probably more than 90 percent of the grown men I take on hunts,” Longer told the Victoria Advocate.

Unsurprisingly, Ella is an experienced hunter. She has been hunting for years with her parents, Tony and Cindy Hawk, who are themselves hunting and fishing enthusiasts. It was therefore not a fluke that she was able to kill an alligator that sets a new record for the Trophy Game Records of the World.

She had prepared for the expedition by practicing how to hit a target from an elevated position.

The family’s Facebook pages show evidence of their active outdoor hunting and fishing lives. Ella is photographed with a dead deer while her father is photographed with bears and wild boars.

She won the Trophy Game Records of the World’s Huntress of the Year award last year. Her kill this year also positions her to win the Trophy Game Records of the World’s Huntress of the Year award for girls up to 17 years old for the second year in a row.

Longer had baited the reptile and hooked it near the bank before allowing Ella to shoot and kill the animal with her crossbow.

Ella fired a final shot with a .234 which also hit the first bolt, proving her marksmanship.

Her first shot with the crossbow hit the alligator just above the eyes, and after a second shot, she hit the alligator on the same spot as the first.

But some online readers appeared upset about the girl’s hunting activities.

A reader on the Victoria Advocate commented, “Sad. The family sounds so happy. Sad, sad, sad.”

Another reader on the Daily Mail, wrote, “How in God’s name can you teach a child to kill a defenceless animal. This just makes me feel sick.”

But other readers defended the young hunter.

A reader wrote, “Great shot Ella. You did something most people never will. Be proud.”

Yet another reader responded to Ella’s critics, saying, “If you don’t want to do it [shoot alligators], then don’t. If you do want to, then do it. That’s the beauty of this country. I just can’t understand why anyone would criticize a young girl for following her passion.”

But some critics compared her action to the killing of Cecil the lion that drew international outrage.

“No widespread condemnation? No public outcry for justice? What’s up? Is it because the alligator is a confirmed maneater? Guess what, so is the lion! If you were proud to be ‘Cecil’ but not ‘Alligator’ it just confirms my rants about hypocrisy were right.”

[Image: Facebook via the Daily Mail]