Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify the rules have not yet taken effect, and must have final approval by May 2022.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved a set of proposed updates for statewide gator hunting during the season. Going forward, daily hunting is expanded by seven hours, and hunters can use additional types of weapons and ammo to bring in their catches.

FWC Commissioners have until May 2022 to consider the proposed rules for final adoption. The state agency is asking the public to provide input on the changes online.

According to FWC, current hunting hours for alligators are from 5 p.m. to 10 a.m. To give hunters more flexibility, the commission has added another 7 hours to hunt times. They’ve also expanded what can be used to take down a gator. The increased hours would make gator hunting legal 24 hours a day in most areas, according to FWC. The change of schedule will start when gator season begins in August.

There are still some areas with restricted access for alligator hunting. FWC said those locations will likely still keep their restricted hours. The commission said adding the extra daylight hours would help ensure alligators hooked before 10 a.m. can actually be landed before a deadline.

The extra daylight hours are expected to help hunters navigate their boats and equipment, particularly “when supervising youth or introducing new participants to alligator hunting,” according to FWC.

Now, hunters can also use airbows and tethered arrows to legally take gators down. The new weapons are “precharged pneumatic airbows,” and along with the tethered arrows, they would give hunters “a new effective way to initially secure a line to the animal to safely gain control of it” for harvesting.

The arrow would have to be attached to a restraining line tethered to an airbow or boat. FWC said airbows were not commercially available the last time harvest methods for alligators were updated. The state agency said alligators were “a conservation success story in Florida,” with the reptile originally on the Federal Endangered Species List in 1967.

The most recent data available on Florida alligator hunting showed about 8,200 alligators were harvested in 2020. Most were male, though some specimens’ biological sexes were not identified after hunting. State data from FWC said 80.1% of the gators harvested were male.

Of the alligators hunted, the biggest group of takedowns, according to size, were gators 7 to 8 feet long. According to FWC, the largest alligator ever found in Florida was 14-feet, 3.5-inches long. The gator was found in Brevard County at Lake Washington.

The heaviest alligator found in the state was a bit shorter, at 13-feet, 10.5-inches long, weighing 1,043 pounds. It was found in Orange Lake in Alachua County.

The new hunting rules proposed and approved by FWC come right as alligator mating season is about to start. According to the commission, alligators begin courting mates in early April, before officially mating in May to June. Female alligators lay between 32 to 46 eggs by June or July, with incubation taking just over two months.

Alligator hatchlings leave their eggs from late August to early September, according to FWC. As a federally-designated threatened species, the American Alligator is protected by the Endangered Species Act. Still, since 1988, Florida’s alligator harvest program has been “nationally and internationally recognized as a model program for the sustainable use of a natural resource.”

With a population estimate of 1.3 million alligators, FWC said the “population has been stable for many years and continues to remain healthy.” Learn more facts about Florida’s alligators below.