Zombie Animals

mawdz

What Animals can turn into zombies?
Im guessing dogs can anyway cos we have seen it in the movies and such so its bound to be possible for them. What about like Rabbits, Cats, Pandas ( if so i think these would be really freaky!),Worms, Turtles etc..?
If so aswell how would they act? Would they resort to cannabalism or would they eat humans?
IF a worm could and you cut him in half would it be 2 zombie worms or jsut one zombie worm and one normal?

Im actually quite interest in this as ive enver seen any animals but dogs in movies as "zombified""

ScumLord

The zombie virus doesn't cross species. Viruses tend to b specific to a particular animal as they need to replicate using specific dna in the host.

RiderOnTheStorm

I saw a good movie recently, it was a black comedy called 'Black Sheep' about sheep that turn into zombie-like critters (well, more 'rage' than zombie) .... set in New Zealand, so there was lots of them! It was quite funny. But they did attack other sheep, and humans. I think a dog turned in it too .... but no cattle (or worms .... ps, dont worms eat us anyway?)

mawdz

ScumLord wrote: »

The zombie virus doesn't cross species. Viruses tend to b specific to a particular animal as they need to replicate using specific dna in the host.

But apparently:

"The research team at the National Human Genome Research Institute and several universities compared the same stretch of DNA in a chimpanzee, baboon, cat, dog, cow, pig, rat, mouse, chicken, zebrafish and two species of pufferfish with human DNA."

So in that case all those animals would be able to contract the Zombie Virus???

RiderOnTheStorm

mawdz wrote: »

"The research team at the National Human Genome Research Institute and several universities compared the same stretch of DNA in a chimpanzee, baboon, cat, dog, cow, pig, rat, mouse, chicken, zebrafish and two species of pufferfish with human DNA."

and what did they find when they compared them?

ScumLord

mawdz wrote: »

But apparently:

"The research team at the National Human Genome Research Institute and several universities compared the same stretch of DNA in a chimpanzee, baboon, cat, dog, cow, pig, rat, mouse, chicken, zebrafish and two species of pufferfish with human DNA."

So in that case all those animals would be able to contract the Zombie Virus???

No, all mammals are more alike than they are different, chimps and other higher primates would have a high likelyhood on being infected due to there genetic similarity but even so its not in any way certain any other animal could pick it up. A big portion of every living things genetic code is just junk. Left overs from mutations and bits no longer needed, so we're not sharing useful code with other animals.

RiderOnTheStorm

ScumLord wrote: »

No, all mammals are more alike than they are different, chimps and other higher primates would have a high likelyhood on being infected due to there genetic similarity but even so its not in any way certain any other animal could pick it up. A big portion of every living things genetic code is just junk. Left overs from mutations and bits no longer needed, so we're not sharing useful code with other animals.

+1

Water Mellons and clouds are 99.9% water .... but that last .1% makes them vastly different

mawdz

Oh rigth i kinda get the idea of it. BE funny to see a swarm of zombie worms munchin on another worm hahaha or turtle. Basically any small animal that has a zombie virus would be funny. Once they jsut ate each other and not humans. Which i guess would be the case as Human zombies dont go round eatin insects and dogs and such.

Edit: Also it did cross species once in a movie. Once In a movie it went into Strippers :pac:

Dan_Solo

OMG, if every species on earth can "catch zombie" maybe we are all zombies already!:eek:

Kess73

Brian Keene touches on this in some of his zombie books.

Some species are more resistent to the virus in his books, but it eventually mutates and jumps species.


Dead Sea is probably the book where he explores it the most.

ScumLord

The problem is the zombie "virus" isn't a particularly good virus from the point of view of replicating. It has a poor method of transmission. Any mutations are unlikely to be passed on.

Max Brooks also said the virus simply kills other animals without reanimation so there's little chance of the virus spreading in other animals.

A virus like the flu can live in human populations quite easily for most people it doesn't do a whole lot of damage, but it gets to live through countless life cycles by being so non aggressive giving it time to mutate.

The zombie virus on the other hand is too destructive for it's own good. It'll probably contribute more to it's own downfall than we will only being a flash in the pan virus that's comes and goes in the blink of an eye by natures standards.

RiderOnTheStorm

Zombie Animals I Would Hate to Meet:
zombie-shark
zombie-bear
zombie-lion

Zombie Animals I Would Not Like to Meet:
zombie-cat
zombie-dog
zombie-goat

Zombie Animals I Would Not Mind Meeting:
zombie-budgie
zombie-caterpillar
zombie-penguin

GavRedKing

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

Zombie Animals I Would Hate to Meet:
zombie-shark
zombie-bear
zombie-lion

Zombie Animals I Would Not Like to Meet:
zombie-cat
zombie-dog
zombie-goat

Zombie Animals I Would Not Mind Meeting:
zombie-budgie
zombie-caterpillar
zombie-penguin

Also add, hate to meet a Zombie Gorilla

Craven99

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

+1

Water Mellons and clouds are 99.9% water .... but that last .1% makes them vastly different

Actually a watermelon is 92 % water by weight at most.

But I think you are mixing sciences here.

Comparing Watermelons to Clouds is silly as a cloud has no DNA which was the point being made previously

Dan_Solo

As long as there's no zombie mosquitos. Damn they'd be hard to stop.

RiderOnTheStorm

Craven99 wrote: »

Actually a watermelon is 92 % water by weight at most.

But I think you are mixing sciences here.

Comparing Watermelons to Clouds is silly as a cloud has no DNA which was the point being made previously

point taken.



By the way, I heard that the only animal that can harbour a virus that can jump to a human are pigs and birds. Anyone have anything concrete on this?

Zombie pigs would be very dangerous, as they have great eating ability (can crush a mans head with their jaws, according to urban legend), they would be quite fast, strong and can infect you even if they dont manage to consume you entirely

.... and zombie birds? Remember the Hitchcock movie Birds? Imagine that where the bids can infect you too!

Dan_Solo

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

By the way, I heard that the only animal that can harbour a virus that can jump to a human are pigs and birds. Anyone have anything concrete on this?

Cowpox, AIDS and hepatitis are viruses that have other animals as "reservoirs". We have a long association with pigs and chickens, which is the reason why viruses get the opportunity to mutate to forms infectious to humans.

ScumLord

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

point taken.



By the way, I heard that the only animal that can harbour a virus that can jump to a human are pigs and birds. Anyone have anything concrete on this?

Zombie pigs would be very dangerous, as they have great eating ability (can crush a mans head with their jaws, according to urban legend), they would be quite fast, strong and can infect you even if they dont manage to consume you entirely

.... and zombie birds? Remember the Hitchcock movie Birds? Imagine that where the bids can infect you too!

AIDs jumped from Chimps didn't it? Chimps are very similar but you won't find them roaming the Irish countryside I guess. The vast majority of pigs don't roam free either, I don't see many birds being caught by zombies.

liah

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

point taken.



By the way, I heard that the only animal that can harbour a virus that can jump to a human are pigs and birds. Anyone have anything concrete on this?

Zombie pigs would be very dangerous, as they have great eating ability (can crush a mans head with their jaws, according to urban legend), they would be quite fast, strong and can infect you even if they dont manage to consume you entirely

.... and zombie birds? Remember the Hitchcock movie Birds? Imagine that where the bids can infect you too!

There's loads of diseases that pass from animals to us.

Rats, cats, rabbits, squirrels, pigs, cows, birds, horses, sheep, the list goes on.

More commonly, they're only carriers rather than "sharing" the disease, but it's hardly unheard of that they experience the same or similar equivalent symptoms.

Also, chimps gave humans the rage virus in 28 Days/Weeks Later, I suppose if you're the type to differentiate between the rage virus and zombies it doesn't count, but since this thread is about zombie viruses it's more or less the same thing.

RiderOnTheStorm

lots of quick replies there.

I suppose what I was getting at, is how many animal species can we expect to be zombies and be able to spread it on to humans too and make them zombies. So, in this sense, carriers dont count (as they wouldnt be zombies themselves)

Dan_Solo

Viruses by their nature have to infect the host animal to survive, though the effects may or may not be as pronounced in different species. A certain degree of "zombieism" would be expected in any carrier.

ScumLord

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

lots of quick replies there.

I suppose what I was getting at, is how many animal species can we expect to be zombies and be able to spread it on to humans too and make them zombies. So, in this sense, carriers dont count (as they wouldnt be zombies themselves)

If your excluding carriers I'd guess none, if a virus or disease does manage to infect another species there's no guarantee that even the symptoms would be the same. I think with the zombie survival guide it may have mentioned that other animals that don't have the higher brain functions of humans for the virus to destroy just end up dead.

sierra117x

havent humans already been infected by diseases that effect animals? and visa versa ? i dont see why the zombie disease would be any different

ScumLord

sierra117x wrote: »

havent humans already been infected by diseases that effect animals? and visa versa ? i dont see why the zombie disease would be any different

We have yes but it's rare enough when it happens, so rare it's international news. Typically when a virus jumps it also has different effects.

sierra117x

ScumLord wrote: »

We have yes but it's rare enough when it happens, so rare it's international news. Typically when a virus jumps it also has different effects.

but at the very least its plausible enough to be wary around post zday animals . they could always be carriers even if they remain unharmed themselves.......i can see rats being a major problem

ScumLord

sierra117x wrote: »

but at the very least its plausible enough to be wary around post zday animals . they could always be carriers even if they remain unharmed themselves.......i can see rats being a major problem

Possibly, but I don't see zombies being able to catch and infect anything to dangerous. Other animals bread and butter survival method is running away from things, they're experts at it. I've never been able to catch a wild animal with my bare hands, zombies don't stand a chance.

Cattle could be the big risk factor with pigs being top of the list, simply because their food for us. If hey became infected without showing symptoms you could end up infecting entire survivor outposts.

sierra117x

ScumLord wrote: »

Possibly, but I don't see zombies being able to catch and infect anything to dangerous. Other animals bread and butter survival method is running away from things, they're experts at it. I've never been able to catch a wild animal with my bare hands, zombies don't stand a chance.

Cattle could be the big risk factor with pigs being top of the list, simply because their food for us. If hey became infected without showing symptoms you could end up infecting entire survivor outposts.

ah but your thinking about it the way i did at first to literally and straightforward . more likely is rat bites zombie . rat gets infected . carrion birds feeding on infected corpses . can you imagine if every single bird rat cat and dog out there was suddenly walking infection! as it is theres always a danger from being bitten by animals can you imagine if these animals are taken over by an overwhelming hunger and loss of what intelligence they have

RiderOnTheStorm

As said before, animals can be carriers of z-virus but may not be 'sufferers', so i guess it doesnt matter if they are true zombies or not .... if they can make us zombies then thats all that matters.

So what if the animals get infected first? ..... what animals should we be afraid of?

I guess the answer is the species with the largest population. Cats & dogs would not be so bad, we could prob fight them off or avoid them. But cows / sheep / pigs would be real bad, as there are just so many of them and all our towns / citys are so close to major populations of them. But the largest animal family is insects, right? I think if they were infected we would have a very hard time avoiding them and very hard to fight them off.

I am assuming for the sake of this discussion that the 1 species that gets infected cant pass it on to another animal species (except us). If 1 animal species can pass it on to another and then another, and humans too, then every species on the whole panet will be infected in a very short space of time and we are all doomed....


EDIT: didnt refresh page and see sierra117x's post. Thats more along the lines of what I was getting at. I think birds would be a very big danger too, prob 2nd worst after insects.

ScumLord

sierra117x wrote: »

ah but your thinking about it the way i did at first to literally and straightforward . more likely is rat bites zombie . rat gets infected . carrion birds feeding on infected corpses . can you imagine if every single bird rat cat and dog out there was suddenly walking infection! as it is theres always a danger from being bitten by animals can you imagine if these animals are taken over by an overwhelming hunger and loss of what intelligence they have

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

I am assuming for the sake of this discussion that the 1 species that gets infected cant pass it on to another animal species (except us). If 1 animal species can pass it on to another and then another, and humans too, then every species on the whole panet will be infected in a very short space of time and we are all doomed....

Now your coming up with an even more unlikely sequence of events. It's just as hard for a virus to jump from a rat to a dog as it is for a virus to jump from a human to a rat. It's also been said by Max Brooks that the virus kills other animals (which is the most likely thing to happen if the virus did jump to another species).

On top of that it's hard to know what would actually happen if other animals eat the zombie flesh, their more powerful stomach acids might kill the virus completely (dogs eat ****, they have bellies like iron), if the virus was also infectious it's likely other animals that live to eat would pick up on that and avoid it.

RiderOnTheStorm

I am not talking specifically about animals eating contaminated flesh, or zombies catching animals and pasing it to them. Rather, I am asking what if the animals caught it first (like rage in 28 days) and if they could pass it on (instead of just passing it among themselves), then what animal would we be most under threat from? If fish, for example, could infect us, then we would have very little to worry about.

As said earlier, I agree that there are very few animals that can be a zombie and at same time pass it on. But they can be carriers, and can infect humans , so we can become zombies regardless of the status of the animal (carrier or tru zombie).

Bacchus

Dan_Solo wrote: »

As long as there's no zombie mosquitos. Damn they'd be hard to stop.

Interesting. If a mosquito fed off a zombie and later fed off a living human, could the zombie virus be transmitted! :eek: