Zombies bite people to satisfy the most primitive appetite, but do zombies attach animals?
A simple answer to this question would be, “Yes, zombies do attack animals,” but in what circumstances? When do they attack? Why do they usually not attack animals as their first instinct?
Let’s look into this matter more and answer this question more deeply.
Zombies can attack animals.
The protagonist’s puppy in the original novel “I’m a Legend” was originally a stray dog. And the book also mentions that the puppy survived by finding a way to protect itself, so the animal could also be attacked.
Are humans the only people affected by the virus?
Fans of The Walking Dead have been following the adventures of Daryl, Carol, and Michonne for more than nine years. Over the seasons, there have been many deaths and victims of the virus. Because of a virus, humans can turn into zombies, creating an apocalypse.
Since then, our heroes have been doing everything to get out of it and eliminate the leading cause of the spread of this virus: zombies. It turns out that the virus can also infect animals. But what are the consequences and symptoms? Can the zombie virus control animals too? We will find all this out in the later sections of the article.
Can zombie animals infect humans with zombie virus?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported more than two thousand animals (moose, deer, and monkeys) in which spongiform encephalopathy has been detected. Infectious agents cause this chronic debilitating disease with an abnormal structure – they do not contain nucleic acids but consist solely of proteins. These agents literally “eat holes in the brain.” A fatal outcome occurs after prolonged torment. There are no treatments.
Zombie animal disease could infect humans too.
According to a study, the mysterious chronic cachexia disease (CWD) affecting deer in Canada and the US could affect humans.
Herds of deer in North America are dying from a strange disease that gradually destroys the nervous system of these animals and turns them into a kind of zombie. At least 22 US states and several regions of Canada are affected by the disorder named chronic cachexia (CWD), also known as ‘zombie deer disease.
The disease produces neurodegenerative disorders (cognitive disorders such as those caused by Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s). Prions and proteins with neurodegenerative disorders spread it. Still, direct contact is not the only way: animals and corpses infected with this disease can spread it through plants and soil. Therefore, hunters are advised to be extremely careful with infected deer.
How many animals have been attacked by zombies?
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the virus has been identified in almost half of the United States and countries where these animal species are found in more significant numbers, such as Finland or Norway. Currently, the total number of affected specimens is unknown, and the CDC suspects that if it continues to spread, the number of human cases may be “substantial” and not “isolated cases.”
Can we treat the animals attacked by zombies?
Currently, there is no treatment for the disease, and it is known that the symptoms do not appear immediately, so a diagnosis would be more than complicated in humans. For animals, it is a terminal illness.
What are the symptoms of zombie attacks on animals?
The zombie virus leaves holes in the brain and attacks the nervous system, so animals turn into zombies. They do not respond to danger. Show aggression. They constantly eat but lose weight. The mechanism of the spread of the virus has not yet been studied, but infected animals infect any animals and people with the zombie virus. Infection often occurs with close contact with or eating meat from sick animals. It is possible that zombie animals can spread the disease by airborne droplets. Scientists believe that a zombie virus can cause an epidemic in a month.
One such zombie moose was recently met near a river. An utterly white beast came out, passed by a stupid mushroom picker, which for several minutes turned from a fright into a “monument,” reached the water, crossed the river, and set off. The animal looked like a robot with “dead” eyes. According to an eyewitness, he had never seen anything like it. The man does not interest him but swears he will no longer go to the forest. He is sure aliens or special services took this animal out in a secret laboratory.
Which zombie virus infects animals after an attack?
We travel in this post to the forests of Thailand, and we are slowly zooming in until we reach a tree branch where we find carpenter ants. They continue collecting food and taking it to the anthill, oblivious to a danger that lurks and will turn them into zombies. And who is to blame? What is the “T virus” of these insects? A fungus of the genus Ophiocordyceps.
This fungus infects the living ant and grows inside it throughout its body and head, ending its nervous and muscular system. The ant is gradually changing its behavior due to this infection and begins to move away from the usual routes (which he does not usually do) and to have seizures that end up causing him to fall from the tree to the leaves of the lower bushes, where the humidity is generally higher (a factor that favors the reproduction of the fungus).
Once the ant has fallen to the bushes, the fungus controls its “puppet” again and causes it to contract its jaws to stay hooked to the leaf and not fall to the ground. Thus, the fungus has achieved a stable place to grow in addition to moisture. So, even with its live host ant, it continues to grow and reproduce, gradually ending its life. And here ends the process of “zombification”; now, the spores of the fungus must infect more ants to survive as a species.
Can zombie virus control animals after the attack?
Despite the investigations, it is still fascinating to see how a fungus can control the nervous and muscular system of an animal for its benefit and how, little by little, the ant goes from having normal behavior to becoming a complete zombie in a process that usually lasts between three and nine days.
Nature surpasses fiction again and continues to fascinate us with examples worthy of the admiration of any zombie geek.
Is animal meat unique or different from humans?
The reason why zombies have survived for so long is not because they have eaten animals or even certain plants to ingest protein. Some animals are richer in protein than human meat. Zombies should choose to attack when they smell a living body or have a movement.
Then, if infected, there should be dead things like zombie cows, zombie dogs, and zombie pigs.
The zombie virus outbreak is terrible because it infects people and animals. The guys around us who are the same as we are infected into living corpses that only know to eat.
Who is not afraid? The virus that turns men into zombies remains a massive mystery in The Walking Dead. However, we finally know why animals can be affected by this disease!
How can we prevent ourselves from animals being attacked by zombies?
For the moment, the only way is to destroy the virus and kill all the zombies. This allows humans not to get bitten by zombie animals and turn into zombies. The characters have yet to find a cure for the virus. Besides, they still need to look for one. The virus and its arrival on Earth remain a considerable mystery. However, we know that animals can catch it!
An interesting theory about the zombie virus in animals
Daryl made a brand-new friend in The Walking Dead. The man is walking with a dog, and he seems to like him very much. Fans can already reassure her. Daryl’s dog has no chance of becoming a zombie dog. This is not planned in the series, and fans will never see an animal turn into a zombie! There is a logical explanation for why a zombie virus infects certain animals, not others.
Some viruses are specific to a species. Viruses do not pass from one species to another in all cases. Diseases like measles and smallpox only affect humans. Said Tara Smith, a microbiologist.
Science has found why the series’ rarely put forward zombie animals. According to her, the virus affects only particular species. Thus, it would have been created only to attack humans and destroy a large part of the population.
No matter what it is, this virus seems specific to humans and a selective few animals. Otherwise, we would see zombie animals all around us because they can spread amazingly faster in animals than humans. Viruses typically have a tropism, meaning they can only infect a particular type of cell.
Conclusion
DO zombies attack animals? Yes, but animals are not their primary target according to their instincts. Zombies are bloodthirsty for humans more than anything. We have shared all the information on zombies’ attacks on animals. Do you have something interesting to tell us? Share your thoughts in the comments.
