A 9-foot-tall grizzly bear killed by an Alaskan hunter last year has officially been named as the largest ever to be bagged, UK MailOnline reported.
The behemoth was spotted by 35-year-old Larry Fitzgerald and his friends near Fairbanks. After tracking it for three hours, Fitzgerald took it down with a single shot to the neck from 20 yards.
"We knew it was big," he said. "It was a rush."
The group of hunters was in for loads of luck since they weren't even out hunting for bears when they spotted the large animal, according to UK MailOnline.
They were, however, searching for a moose.
"I'm not really a trophy hunter, or anything," Fitzgerald modestly told Fox News. "But I guess it is kind of cool."
The bear, which Fitzgerald took down last September, came in just second to the largest grizzly ever found by just a fraction of an inch as measured by skull size, the accepted method of record.
The news was announced on Friday by the Boone and Crockett Club, which keeps the Records of North American Big Game.
"The Missoula, Montana-based group said Fitzgerald's bear's skull measured a mere 7/16ths of an inch smaller than the world record, which was also killed in Alaska, way back in 1976," UK MailOnline reported.
The proximity that Fitzgerald found the bear to the last one near the city of Fairbanks was shocking, Richard Hale, Chairman of the Boone and Crocket Club said.
"One would think that a relatively accessible area, with liberal bear hunting regulations to keep populations in line with available habitat and food, would be the last place to find one of the largest grizzly bears on record," he said.
Grizzly hunts will surely be on the rise, he said.
"Grizzly populations are doing well across all their ranges. That includes populations in the Lower 48 states that are currently federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, but will soon be up for delisting and management authority turned over to the watchful eye of state wildlife managers."
