Wild Life

[Exatreides]

Okay, So how do you think animals would react to the living dead? Dogs that wern't eaten would escape and form pacts for protection and defense, but if the living dead did eat animals, then I don't see them lasting very long. Cats I can see surviving a zombie epidemic.... But thats not the main jest of the post. The main jest was, why in all the zombie films. No one ever addresses Flies, Segulls, Vultures and other animals. Flies would be in the millions, the undead would hardly last more then 6 weeks before being completly consumed by flies, roaches, and everything else that disposes of waste. The pressure of gases inside would build up and explode paralzing them possibly. Segulls and vultures would decimate the population to, imagine the sky dark with the animals just decending on millions of undead in Chicago or Phenoix. The undead would become quite dead thanks to natures own waste management system don't you think? It just has always bugged me, because you always see these fresh zombies with no insects or animals around them at all.

[Marie]

Yea, it always botherd me that the walking dead in Day of the Dead were in such good condition. Anybody who's seen what happens to roadkill in a hot climate thinks of that as fantasy . It's even more unbelievable than an underground base here, and trust me, anybody who's ever dug a deep hole here knows how silly THAT is. Face it, it's all fantasy. M_

[AcesandEights]

Meh. Due to the general slow down of decomposition, I'd posit that something is afoot with regards to creatures that would normally aid in the decomposition of the body. By this, I mean that organisms that feed upon the dead in the Romero films, simply, do not (perhaps they are dirven away by *something* inherent to the walking dead). I would further assume that this is a side effect, or somehow related to the odd nature of the phenomenon responsible for the rising of the undead. After all, something must be responsbile for that slowed rate of decomposition as noted in Day.

[Philly_SWAT]

Well, I always thought about it this way. IN our universe, the dead can not rise and walk around and want to eat the living, they just stay dead. IN the Romero universe, the dead do rise, etc. So obviously, that universe in different than ours. IN a universe where that is possible, then it is also possible that the gas build-up would not happen, that insects and animals may have no interest in whatever is happened to the zombie flesh, etc. I mean, nature has a way of warning animals of certain things not to do, for example, most poisonous snakes being bright in color, or frogs, and certain plantlife, it is a warning "hey dont eat me, I'm poison". They may be something inherent to the zeds that make insects not want anything to do with them.

[CivilDefense]

As far as zombie exploding, gas pressure building up.. Remember that thinking is coming from the dead dead. The Living dead are moving around, shambling, walking this way, falling down stairs, biting neighbors and shambling some more. This movement might alow the gas to escape or just not build up in the same way.

[Trancelikestate]

well, there is crabs eating that one fully dead corpse, and a taratula for some reason on the other. for hollywood effect i guess. but all these points seem valid. philly's makes sense. but hey i also know you cant dig a hole in florida. but i love the movie anyway!!!

[Chakobsa]

Yea, it always botherd me that the walking dead in Day of the Dead were in such good condition. Anybody who's seen what happens to roadkill in a hot climate thinks of that as fantasy . It's even more unbelievable than an underground base here, and trust me, anybody who's ever dug a deep hole here knows how silly THAT is. Face it, it's all fantasy. M_ Yeah, all the "Seminole Storage facility" stuff was shot somewhere else due to the exceptionally high water table I believe. As to the animal predation question, I could envision the zombies being pursued and constantly bothered by packs of feral dogs and clouds of seagulls etc. Max Brooks gets round this by saying that there is something about the agent that re-animates the dead causing all animals to shun them. And don't even get me started on that stupid shark scene in "Flesheaters" As far as zombie exploding, gas pressure building up.. Remember that thinking is coming from the dead dead. The Living dead are moving around, shambling, walking this way, falling down stairs, biting neighbors and shambling some more. This movement might alow the gas to escape or just not build up in the same way. I've mentioned the potential for spectacular postmortem flatulence elsewhere. You know, if the living dead are rotting how could anybody get suprised/ambushed by them? "Gee, I'll just poke around in this old farmhouse whilst blithely ignoring the smell of rotting corpse. Aiiieeeee.."

[Rottedfreak]

You can point out all the inconsistecies in GARs dead universe but ultimately the idea of dead things walking at all is the biggest flaw. they would be afflicted by rigor mortis and unable to move - completely siezed up, they wouldn't bleed like they do, they shouldn't be stronger then humans or learning things and the only thing I can think of as to why animals don't attack them is because they aren't fully dead, but close. Logan described them as 'the same animal functining less perfectly', they are described as reactivated human corpses, as ghouls and no ones seen how long a zombie can exist when it's just a head so maybe they aren't entirely dead.

[Chakobsa]

You can point out all the inconsistecies in GARs dead universe but ultimately the idea of dead things walking at all is the biggest flaw. they would be afflicted by rigor mortis and unable to move - completely siezed up, they wouldn't bleed like they do, they shouldn't be stronger then humans or learning things and the only thing I can think of as to why animals don't attack them is because they aren't fully dead, but close. Logan described them as 'the same animal functining less perfectly', they are described as reactivated human corpses, as ghouls and no ones seen how long a zombie can exist when it's just a head so maybe they aren't entirely dead. Rigor mortis usually starts at around three to four hours after death and is generally gone after thirty six hours, it's due to the breakdown of a chemical called ATP, interestingly this is the chemical that facilitates the transfer of energy between cells to allow for muscle contraction and therefore movement. Maybe whatever causes the dead to rise inhibits the breakdown of this chemical. The fact that the onset of rigor can be affected by temperature may have contributed to the belief in vampires. Imagine that after a death in the village the body of the deceased doesn't stiffen as normal... As to the bleeding etc, you're right; they shouldn't, but then we are talking about horror movies so some licence is to be expected. Maybe whatever revives them etc, etc. At the end of the day; yes it's just fantasy horror and it doesn't have to have rigorous internal consistency, but it's FUN to speculate. BTW, some of the info above is from wikipedia and some is my own.

[MaximusIncredulous]

From what I remember, no one in the series complains of odors. Peter only mentioned the smell of rotten after they greased the zombs in the mall. I guess whatever was behind the dead rising and eating the flesh of the living inhibited the odor that's normally given off by dead folks. If that had been harnessed by the living, it could've revolutionized deodorants.

[Brubaker]

Somewhere along the line, a lot of animals would have run out of food. Housepets or livestock mainly. I'm sure populations of deer, bear, moose, fish, etc. animals that are regularly harvested by humans, may have swelled. Great white sharks may have missed the occasional ship sinking every couple of years, allowing them to feast on 10-20 humans at a time.

[jdog]

animals attacking the zombies would be a great twist to a movie. as for why its never been done before, my guess is that no zombie movie has ever had a budget big enough or the writers left it out or never thought of it.