Zombie animal
In fiction, a zombie animal is a non-human creature that becomes a zombie. Numerous types of animals have been portrayed as zombies - a zombie dog appeared in the film The Last Man on Earth in 1964,[1] and an infected dog is the source of the zombie virus in REC (2007). Night of the Zombies (1981) features a scare from a zombie cat,[2] as does Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse. A jump scare scene featuring zombie dogs in the first Resident Evil is considered to be a seminal horror scene in video game history.[3][4][5]
In real life
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While predominantly a fictional concept when applied to larger mammals, the term "zombie" is sometimes used in biology in reference to certain diseases in animals. Arthropods infected by entomopathogenic fungi such as the Cordyceps genus have their bodies taken over and their tissues are eventually replaced, leading to them being described as zombies. The Cordyceps fungus served as the primary inspiration for the zombies in The Last of Us franchise.[6][7] Similarly, the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus inspired the zombies in the novel The Girl with All the Gifts and its film adaptation.[8]
Deer infected with chronic wasting disease, a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, exhibit zombie-like symptoms, which has caused the disease to be known as "zombie deer disease".[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Shawn McIntosh, Marc Leverette Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead 2008 page 58
- ^ John Kenneth Muir Horror Films of the 1980s 2010 p 403 ".. The “cat jolt” scare is given an upgrade, when the SWAT team witnesses a zombie cat burrow out of a corpse's chest."
- ^ "Resident Evil's Window Dogs Set The Standard For Video Game Scares". Kotaku. 4 April 2018. Archived from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
- ^ "The Memory Card .07: Attack of the zombie dog!". Destructoid. 15 June 2007. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
- ^ Stuart, Keith; MacDonald, Keza (October 31, 2018). "The 13 scariest video game moments ever". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 7, 2019. Retrieved December 8, 2019 – via www.theguardian.com.
- ^ Hill, Kyle. "The Fungus that Reduced Humanity to The Last of Us". Scientific American. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
- ^ "We Asked a Mycologist About 'The Last of Us' and It Got Weird". Esquire. 2023-02-06. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
- ^ Bachman, Mara (2020-04-12). "The Girl With All The Gifts: Fungal Infection & Hungries Explained". ScreenRant. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
- ^ Wilkinson, Todd (2023-12-22). "'Zombie deer disease' epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-02-15.