BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will open its recreational alligator harvest lottery on Thursday.

Aspiring gator hunters have until Aug. 30 to enter the lottery.

The recreational season will run across eight harvest zones from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31, LDWF said.

This lottery is separate from the longstanding commercial alligator lottery harvest application, which was completed in July.

Applications are only available through the LDWF licensing website. LDWF said those who want to apply need to click on the Lottery Applications tab, update or create their customer details and submit an application for the zone they want to hunt.

There is a non-refundable $50 application fee for each zone application submitted. Applicants can apply for and win a harvest opportunity for more than one zone, but each zone requires its own application fee.

To be eligible, applicants must be legal Louisiana residents, at least 16 years old and meet all hunter education requirements.

If selected, hunters will need to purchase a Resident Alligator Sports Hunter License for $25. LDWF has posted a map and descriptions of the recreational harvest zones on its website to help applicants with their selections.