AL: Man attacked by a bobcat while turkey hunting

https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/04/23/man-attacked-by-bobcat-while-turkey-hunting/

04/23/2025

Claude Strother has been hunting turkeys since 1975. Being attacked by a bobcat wasn’t something he saw coming, literally.

Strother called it, “Just a fluke deal.”

At 82 years old, he has gone viral.

“I always sit by a big tree. This time I didn’t. I sat by two little trees about as big as your arms. About 18 inches apart,” said Strother.

The die hard turkey hunter from Selma was calling up a big one on his land in Wilcox County when he said he took a hit from behind.

Strother said, “I set the perfect storm for it. 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. I assumed someone had hit me with a baseball bat. It was that hard. Dazed me but it was nothing there. I looked back around and the bobcat was trotting down the road. It could have been a lot worse.”

The bobcat had just missed clawing Strother’s eyes. He said it did bite into the back of his head.

Strother took selfies to show his family right after it had happened.

In his nearly 50 years in the woods, this was a first.

“He thought I was a turkey. My yelping is real good. *giggles* He assumed I was a turkey with a wide head I guess. so he tried it. I don’t blame him at all. i got no grudge against that bobcat, I wouldn’t have shot him if he let me.”

While Strother, his wife and their daughter are now laughing about the bizarre occurrence, at the time, Strother did take it seriously and went to the doctor to get checked out.

His daughter shared his story on Facebook.

“My dad has so many unbelievable but true stories that it’s not surprising,” said DeAnn McGilberry.

McGilberry said reading the hundreds of comments has helped her dad take his mind off a tough cancer battle.

“I keep books. I got every hunt I been on since ’75. Every one. Whether I kill a turkey or not. She said (the Facebook comment), ‘looks like he got a good ending, a good last chapter in his book’…so she don’t think I’m gonna make it. I got other problems. I may not, but hopefully I will.”

Nothing, not even a bobcat or a battle with cancer is going to keep Strother out of the woods.

“Next morning I went to the same spot,” said Strother.

Strother said he’s killed 247 turkeys in the past 50 years. He said he’s hunted 18 states including Mexico.

He said Alabama turkeys are the most challenging to hunt.