Question: Are zombies real??

Cheryl Andisi answered on 18 Jan 2017:

@ Dolly da Gucci
Yes. Zombies are real!
But they are not human. And not what portray in zombie movies and during Halloween.

Real zombies are about survival for the fittest. It is a characteristic where some parasites and fungi species have evolved the ability to control their hosts behavior to get what they need-which most of the time is to ensure that they are transmitted to the next host in order to complete their life cycle.
Here are a few horrifying examples

1.Victim: Pill bug, Parasite: Plagiorhynchus cylindraceus

The parasite lives in the intestinal tract of birds called starlings, and gets pooped out right into the waiting jaws of the pill bug. Once inside the body, the parasite takes over its brain and urges the zombified bug to do crazy things, such as making its whereabouts widely known to its predator, the starling. And thus the parasite completes its journey and runs off to find another bug upon which to practice mind control.

2.Victim: cockroach
A wasp’s venom quickly stabbed into the brain renders the cockroach unable to move. After being dragged into the wasp’s lair, the cockroach continues to live even though its abdomen is being implanted with the wasp’s eggs. The larva later hatches and eats the still living but incapacitated cockroach from the inside out. A month later, the mature wasp flies away, leaving only a rotting carcass behind

3. Victim: Ant
Recently, scientists discovered four new types of body-snatching fungi that prey on carpenter ants. The fungus infects the ants and then begins to use chemical signals to direct the ant on a very strange path. The zombified ant then leaves its colony and takes a jaw-grip on the underside of a leaf, where it stays. When it eventually dies as the fungus spreads around the ant’s body, the fungus produces a stalk from the dead zombie’s head and shoots spores out, trying to lure other ants to join the party- sounds like a scene from the walking dead!

4. Victim: Mice
Toxoplasma gondii can make mice lose their innate, hard-wired fear of cats, effectively turning them into zombies. Infected mice lose their fear of cats, which is good for both cats and the parasite, because the cat gets an easy meal and the parasite gets into the cat’s intestinal track, the only place it can sexually reproduce and continue its cycle of infection.

Just a few examples. There are many more that include modification of fish behavior, spiders, crabs etc! Her are some links you can look up for more information

https://allyouneedisbiology.wordpress.com/tag/zombie-snail/
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150316-ten-parasites-that-control-minds