Real-Life Zombies.

Greeting ATS. This would my first thread in here, hope it would be up to the standards. anyway, I just read this and it got my attention. I thought i'd share it with everybody in here.
zombie like behavior is in fact present in the nature around us.

1-Ants.

There are actual zombie ants. as shown in the picture, a fungus that infects the brains of carpenter ants acts like a hypnotist, compelling them to feed from the part of the leaf that best suits the fungus. Eventually, the fungus which has taken over the ant's brain it can shoot out spores to infect other ants.



2-Birds.

If you are what you eat, then the Great Tit bird species in Hungary must be smart as hell. They have adopted a zombie-like practice passed form generation to generation which requires them to eat the brains of bats for nutrition and sustenance, and intelligence if you believe in voodoo. When the bats wake themselves from hibernation the Great Tits sense this and use the waves to track the bats. When they do, they crack the bats' skull open and devour the insides.



3-Spiders.

A type of wasp has been known to lay its eggs in the abdomen of temporarily paralyzed orb spiders, who go on living as if nothing ever happened. One night the larva left by the wasp sends a signal to the brain of the spider telling it to weave an uncommon web, seemingly to provide shelter. The next night the spider is killed by the larva, signaling that it has served its purpose as a spider zombie and has moved on.



more info on the subject can be found on: likes.com...

Yuck!

Last spring I was cleaning the pond and was surprised to see what appeared to be a thin bit of root thrashing around. I caught it in a jar and went straight on the net to find out what the hell it was - something called a 'Horse Hair Worm'. These apparently find their way into insects visiting for a drink (in a larval form) and develop inside the insect until ready to emerge. At this point they seem to effect the behaviour of the hapless insect, impelling it to go to water, where they burst out and go to find a mate, leaving their host very much dead. I thought I knew most of the critters to be found in UK ponds (having spent a lifetime fascinated by such things) but this was a new one on me.

I don't normally kill things but readily made an exception here Yuck again!

reply to post by Fadi15


Interesting stuff. Deffinatly have seen the fungus on the ant here on ATS before but that must have been at least 2 years at this point. anyway, i think its cool how these examples fit pop-cultures prime examples of zombie characteristics.

Deffinatly think it's at least plausible for any of these to be able to happen to a human, but because of the size of our body it would be alot harder for nature to work out the physiology involving these things. IMO it would have to be developed by humans themselves, and that i would not put past some people on this earth.......

s & f

Imagine a fungus zombie out break!
now that's scary as hell rats,birds,and people all trying to
Eat your brains.

reply to post by Psychoparrot


Sounds like what you are talking about also goes by the name of a Gordian Worm. I saw a video on youtube of a cricket infected by one of these. This stuff is kind of gross but fascinating at the same time.

OP cool post S&F for you buddy.

Psychoparrot
Yuck!

Last spring I was cleaning the pond and was surprised to see what appeared to be a thin bit of root thrashing around. I caught it in a jar and went straight on the net to find out what the hell it was - something called a 'Horse Hair Worm'. These apparently find their way into insects visiting for a drink (in a larval form) and develop inside the insect until ready to emerge. At this point they seem to effect the behavior of the hapless insect, impelling it to go to water, where they burst out and go to find a mate, leaving their host very much dead. I thought I knew most of the critters to be found in UK ponds (having spent a lifetime fascinated by such things) but this was a new one on me.

I don't normally kill things but readily made an exception here

Yuck again!

Horse Hair Worm. what a horrifying parasite, I was curious to see what it looks like after you mentioned it, so i went and google it, ended up watching this youtube video.


However, in the video a real evil mind controller parasite was talked about beside Horse Hair Worm. the "Leucochloridium" which is in simple words, comes to adult stage in the digestive system of a bird. The adult forms sexually reproduce and lay eggs that are released from the host via the bird's excretory system. The droppings are then consumed by snails, The worm in its larval stage, travels into the digestive system of a snail to develop into the next stage inside the snails, growing into long tubes to form swollen pulsating, colorful display that mimics the appearance of a caterpillar which pulsate in response to light intensity forcing the snail to move to the light as bullseye pulsing colorful target for birds, causing the snails to be targeted and eaten by birds killing the snail and completing the parasite life circle.





poor snails.

Too near bedtime to watch that video......and sleep!

How the hell in evolution did they come about? Or if you prefer a more creationist perspective - what was god thinking?

Triple yuck!

reply to post by Fadi15


we also have (worst) zombie parasites that infect humans

edition.cnn.com...

peace.

reply to post by majestic3


last of us?

peace.

dodol
reply to post by Fadi15

 

we also have (worst) zombie parasites that infect humans

edition.cnn.com...

peace.

Was just thinking of this today.