8 replies to this topic

[Darkness]

I watch Walking Dead, and catch the commentary "Talking Dead" after each show. On the last episode there was a guest Matt Mogk representing the Zombie Research Society. His words about what that is:

Quote

We're just a collection of academics and zombie enthusiasts who study zombies as if they were a scientific reality so we don't make anything up or say there was a zombie outbreak last week or something like that but if zombies were to actually show up what would they be like, how would they function, how do we survive?

Pretty cool! I wonder what other types exist, vampires, werewolves, other?

Zombie Research Society
http://zombieresearch.org/

[Rhuen]

I've dabbled in some of these ideas.

the biggest two for me have always been.

*how do zombies identify a living person from a fellow zombie*

and

*what causes the zombie to stop feeding*

think about the second one, if the zombies are so ravenous, then why when they attack a victim do they stop after a short while? If they didn't you likely wouldn't have enough left to make a functioning new zombie (especially when attacked by a swarm), yet aside from a few chunks out of the torso, neck, and possibly missing an arm or big pieces from the legs. they stop feeding on the body pretty quickly).

[Skadi]

I think they usually stop feeding when the living being stops being alive.. so that comes back to the first question I think which might be reworded to "How to zombies identify a living person from a dead one?"

[Darksparrow]

Maybe when the heart stops beating they loose interest? Perhaps when on top of it eating they hear the heart beating and well pulsing and once that is gone they stop. Or maybe a living person gives off a certain smell that they are attracted too. It could be why at the beginning of the series they covered there selves in inards and what not from a zombie so they could get something, i don't remember what it was. If i remember correctly though it started raining and once some of the zombie juices got washed off they started to be slightly attracted to them again.

[Rhuen]

I kind of like the scent idea, but I tossed it away back when I dabbled in this because humans have poor smell, a freshly dead body isn't much different from a living one in smell either, and you see zombies go after a person from a distance, living or/especially or rotting its hard to imagine the zombie could smell the guy from across the street.

Although, sound, maybe not a heartbeat, but perhaps the sound of breathing. the sound of the exhale being like a dinner bell for them, to close in, and then other triggers like heart beat and smell keep them going till they all stop.

Its a shame this is all academic and we can make up our own rules, I'd love to be able to test these hypothesies the same way they tested what triggers a lion to attack and what it chooses to attack.
(they had card board cut outs of various creatures including people, colors, smells, ect... to see what a lion would target first)

[Rhuen]

on another note is what causes a zombie's behavior?
that being if you watch all the different kind of zombie movies, comics, games, ect...and ignore the super-zombies like Lord Raptor or the superheroes turned zombie and stick only with the pretty much mostly mindless ones you get three basic behaviors.

1: The Wandering Zombie
2: The Territorial ZOmbie
3: The Jumper/Waiter

the Wandering Zombies are those zombies that just start moving in a direction and keep going, you'll end up finding them in the middle of the countryside, desert, walk into a swamp and get eaten by an Alligator.

the territorial zombies, these have a short range and long range, the short range seem to stick near where they were killed or near the place they live and/or worked when they were alive, just wandering about what might have been their daily routine when alive.

the jumper/waiter, these are the jump scare zombies, for some reason rather than walking about they lay still, in a closet, in a chair, behind a desk, on the floor, in the bed, they just lay there and rot until/unless potential prey comes into range, then they leap up and attack.

[Darksparrow]

Keeping your previous two post in mind. Do you think perhaps they have some sort of primal sense then? Maybe they know by instinct.?

[Darksparrow]

Pretty cool! I wonder what other types exist, vampires, werewolves, other?

I suppose for the sake of argument, others could exist unless they have an immunity towards it. Like a traditional vampire, they live then die and are reborn maybe that saves them from it.

[Rlyeh]

Darkness, on 08 November 2011 - 12:01 PM, said:

I watch Walking Dead, and catch the commentary "Talking Dead" after each show. On the last episode there was a guest Matt Mogk representing the Zombie Research Society. His words about what that is:



Pretty cool! I wonder what other types exist, vampires, werewolves, other?

Zombie Research Society
http://zombieresearch.org/

There was an old joke website purporting to be from the CDC or something with a very scientific analysis of Zombies physiologically. I'll see if I can dig it up, it was pretty cool.

EDIT: I found the website, it wasn't as official looking as I recall, but it's still pretty interesting, has some fake info on vampires and werewolves too.

http://www.fvza.org/index.html

Edited by Rlyeh, 09 November 2011 - 02:00 PM.