When the hunter becomes the hunted.
It’s springtime, which means that turkey season has come in across most of the United States. The hunting season typically starts in mid-April, and runs into the month of May. In some places like Texas, it even starts as early as March. Regardless of when it begins, avid turkey hunters are always ready to get out in the woods to try and bag themselves a gobbler.
And sometimes, like in this video below, they are reminded that turkeys aren’t the only things that call the wilderness home.
This footage of a turkey hunter being attacked by a bobcat is quickly going viral online. Bobcats might look like a slightly-above-average-sized house cat, but the wild animals are much more than that. The wild felines have heightened senses of vision, smell, and hearing, and they utilize all of those skills to track down their prey.
They also don’t mind using the element of surprise to catch prey in a way where they don’t even know what hit them. Wild cats are known to usually hunt down turkeys, which probably explains why this cat attacked the hunter, who was using a turkey call to try and lure in a trophy bird. As it turns out, turkey calls can also double as a bobcat calls.
The suspense-building video shows the bobcat prowling through the woods for the first minute or so before finally pouncing on the hunter. For much of the video, the wild cat is just trying to figure out what the man in camo sitting up against the tree really is. That’s why the bobcat took so long to make a decision… it was unsure of what it was about to attack, and was really thinking about whether it should attack at all.
Eventually, the bobcat does make a move and swats at our hunter, and the camera points up to the leaves of the trees as the hunter drops the phone and presumably tries to protect itself. It appears that the quick movement by the hunter ended up scaring the bobcat away, and according to the hunter – named Carson Bender – he was able to still get a good shot at a turkey only a couple of minutes after the attack took place:
“Found out I’m good at calling cats and turkeys! Missed a bird three minutes later at 35 yards then headed to the doctor’s office. Just a few scratches on the shoulder.”
Sheesh… that’s a little close for comfort.
Fortunately, the bobcat swiped at the hunter’s shoulder rather than his face or neck. Wild cats often put their razor-sharp claws to use, and this guy is lucky he didn’t feel the full wrath of the bobcat. Much of that had to do with the feline not being sure what it was attacking, as social media users pointed out:
It really had no clue what he was that’s amazing.
— IIAWIAR (@8IBWC) April 19, 2026
Curious cat more than anything, came up to do a swat? You played it calm and collected, knew there’s no real danger (especially kitt’d up, body/neck is protected). Kitty’s too small to do critical damage. Well done :)
— Joby Oommen (@Agent_Joby) April 19, 2026
That is insane!!!
— Brandon Day (@bday6180) April 19, 2026
