Can they die of starvation? In Gars movies...

[MissJacksonCA]

I was just wondering if zombies can die from starvation? It would make sense that if they have the need to feed that similarly they can suffer the consequence of starvation... In Dawn we can see in the parking lot several dead zombies but whether they were killed by a passer-by or hunger remains unknown (at least far as I can tell)... In 28 Days later we see starving and dying zombies and we know Mailer served the purpose of telling the soldiers how long it takes for one of them to die of natural causes... but I'm thinking in terms of the GAR zombie world... And how long d'ya figure it would take for them to die?

[rightwing401]

Never. Logan made it very clear in Day. "It wants me. It wants food. But it has no stomach, can take no nourishment from what it ingests. It's working on instinct. A deep, dark, primordial instinct."

[Cody]

they die from rot. which here in florida its cool cuz id have to wait less time to go out and play since the humidity would rot them to the core OH YEAH BABY

[MissJacksonCA]

Hey that rot thing actually makes sense... save for ... I doubt that the humidity would kill them faster here in the south... if anything I would imagine their lifespan would be longer because of how humid it is ... like old people in Florida live longer than they do elsewheres... It would be neat to see frozen zombies in the north during winter though...

[Cody]

zombies in alaska would take so long to die, or they would just freeze. the only reason why old people last so long in "gods waiting room" state is because they have so much of there own kind to tell war stories to and such

[MissJacksonCA]

or maybe its just because they dont have to work... sometimes when i worked a job i hated id rather jam a fork in my eye than have to be there... or perhaps they just really enjoy bocci ball...

[Slain]

One of the hallmarks of zombie fiction is that an outbreak spreads so rapidly scientists don't have time to study the zombie-causing organism, much less find an effective counter measure for it. A hard science-fiction writer doing a story about zombies would probably have the creatures being animated, and maintained by some off world or artificial organism that operates like nothing the world has ever seen before (like the Andromeda Strain or a nano-organism made in a lab). As for zombie longevity, I'm sure the living to undead would ratio would balance out over time (if the zombies had a finite lifespan) with the numbers of the zombies decreasing to a low, but still dangerous level as the occasional person got infected and turned into one.

[Tricky]

How long would it take to get to the point where they couldnt move because the muscle & tendons had rotted through?

[EvilNed]

Hotter climates would make for quicker rotting. In warm countries you bury the dead instantly because the warm climate can really do a number on them. Up here in Sweden, a funeral usually takes place a few weeks, maybe a month, after the date of death.

[jim102016]

Come on, MJ, those infected people in 28 Days aren't 'zombies'! Getting a drop in the eye and going crazy is far from dying and then coming back as a walking corpse! But, good topic. I don't believe 'zombies' could starve, as they're not alive in the traditional sense. You'd just have to wait for them to rot away. Different climates would add to that process, especially severe heat and cold. They died in 28 Days because they weren't 'zombies' but real people who were infected with a disease. They still had to eat to survive, as opposed to GAR's world where they ate out of some sort of a non-nutritional desire. Personally, I think I'd rather be in a cold climate. The cold would surely slow them down, and you could roam around relatively free in order to kill any in your vacinity. I spent too much time in the deep south of the U.S., don't think I'd want to deal with the dead down there.

[Tricky]

It would get to a point where only the "freshers" posed any kind of threat once the early hordes started to rot down

[clanglee]

Yeah but what about a batch of zombies chilling out in a peat bog? What then? Naturally preserved zombies with no real shelf life. Would they then be considered mummies? hmmmmm

[Yojimbo]

On then subject of rotting flesh, we can only guess at what rate ghouls actually decompose. Though they do not eat to survive, they are in fact "alive" in some sense, and in that regard perhaps they would not rot at the same rate as a "regular" dead corpse would. Surely the environmental factors, as pointed out by several posters, would have an effect on the rate at which a "regular" corpse would decompose, however I seem to recall Dr. Frankenstein mentioning that decomposition slows after revival (though I cannot swear to the exact wording). As to how much revival would affect the rate of decomposition, we can only speculate, and not being a real world phenomenon, we would never know for sure.

[Philly_SWAT]

It would get to a point where only the "freshers" posed any kind of threat once the early hordes started to rot down I dont think it would be outrageous to assume that whatever force exists to re-animate the dead to being with could also slow done the natural rotting process, therefore, I think the dead could "survive" alot longer than regular dead (seems kind of rediculous to say, but hopefully you see my point).

[AcesandEights]

I dont think it would be outrageous to assume that whatever force exists to re-animate the dead to being with could also slow done the natural rotting process, therefore, I think the dead could "survive" alot longer than regular dead (seems kind of rediculous to say, but hopefully you see my point). And such has been backed up, as has already been mentioned, by the feverish and perhaps questionable observations of Dr. Logan. There has been a lot of talk about whether of lack of feeding has an effect on the walking dead. Some think that the flesh keeps them fresher and other postulate that the eating may effect the pathos or intellectual capability of the dead. There is little, to my mind, that backs up either of these possibilities, but it's fun to pick at a few aspects of the different films that may back them up.