“His claws hit right in above my eyes,” Claude Strother says of the bobcat that attacked him from behind
An 82-year-old turkey hunter won’t let a bobcat attack derail his hunting plans.
On Friday, April 18, Claude Strother was feeling restless while his wife was out, so he decided to go out on his property in Wilcox County, Ala., and call for turkey. Instead, a bobcat attacked him from behind while he was sitting against two trees, Strother recounts in a now-viral Facebook video posted by his daughter, DeAnn Strother McGilberry.
That evening, Claude was sitting between the two small trees, leaving his back and head exposed. After making a few turkey calls, Claude felt like he’d been hit with a baseball bat from behind.
“Knockedme forward, and I looked back – nothing,” he says in the video. “Then I looked forward and there was this giant bobcat trotting off.”
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Most of Claude’s injuries were sustained to his head and face.
“My whole head is sore, finally quit hurting. His claws hit right in above my eyes, but not any real damage,” says Claude, who took photos of his face covered in blood after the incident. “Lot of blood, but nothing serious.”
He ended the video with a slight smile while sharing his plans for the next day.
“I’m going back, same spot, in the morning,” Claude says.
While he did indeed go hunting the next day, Claude also made sure to go to the doctor, he told Fox affiliate WALA.
The attack, which Claude described as a “fluke deal,” was the first he’d ever experienced in his nearly fifty years as a hunter.
“I set the perfect storm for it,” Claude told the outlet. “There I was, perfectly camouflaged in a gap, and all he could see was my head, and all of a sudden I was knocked over, and I turned and reached back.”
The hunter said he wasn’t angry at the bobcat, which must have thought he was a turkey because of the call he was using. “I don’t blame him at all,” Claude told WALA. “I have no grudge against that bobcat, I wouldn’t have shot him if he let me.”
Claude is a storied hunter, with four Royal Slams and eight Grand Slams to his name, according to his daughter’s Facebook post. “I love that he has kept Journals of every single hunt through the years,” DeAnn wrote, “what a treasure these are.”
She told the outlet that her dad has been navigating a cancer diagnosis. Reading the comments on social media in response to his experience has been a good distraction, as has his return to the hunt.
