If you’ve lived in Alabama long enough, you know the routine. A forecast hints at snow or ice, and suddenly milk, bread and eggs become rare commodities.
Group texts light up, social media fills with screenshots of weather models and everyone starts asking the same question: Is this the big one?
But as humans brace for winter weather — real or rumored — it raises a lighter, more curious question: do animals panic the same way we do when cold snaps or icy weather threatens?
Recent social media posts from across central Alabama suggest that maybe, just maybe, they do.
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In one post shared by Alabama meteorologist James Spann, a deer is shown tangled in a fence in the Eagle Point neighborhood of northern Shelby County. Spann joked that the animal appeared to be “having a tough morning,” crediting Robert Freel for the video.
No forecasts were mentioned. No models were analyzed. But to Alabamians already on edge during winter weather season, the image felt oddly familiar — like the wildlife equivalent of realizing too late that the grocery store is already out of bread.
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In another moment from Lake Martin, Bill “Bubba” Bussey shared a photo of a buck standing in shallow, freezing water. Bussey noted it took some effort for the deer to reach the spot and speculated the buck may have been chasing a doe, though the reason was unknown.
To be clear, wildlife experts say animals don’t follow meteorologists or refresh weather apps the way humans do. Deer don’t stockpile milk. Squirrels aren’t panic-buying batteries. But animals do respond to changes in temperature, pressure and their environment — sometimes in ways that look, at least to humans, a little frantic.
In Alabama, winter weather anxiety is practically a cultural tradition. From school closure debates to social media snow maps drawn in dramatic shades of purple and blue, the anticipation often becomes bigger than the storm itself.
So when a deer gets stuck in a fence or wanders into icy water, it’s hard not to smile and wonder: Is he stressing too? Or is he just being a deer in Alabama winter?
Either way, the next time forecasts start hinting at snow or ice, Alabamians might not be the only ones acting a little out of character.
At least the deer aren’t fighting us over the last loaf of bread.
Sherri Blevins is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You may contact her at [email protected]
