Zombie Animals?

I was thinking about this a while ago and made some research on this question.

To those not knowing what a zombie is, according to Merriam's dictionary, "A person held to resemble the so-called walking dead" and if you ever watched many zombie flick movies you may understand that they are a force that is waiting until someone stupid releases a virus / enraged monkey bite / supernatural reconstruction / and others. However there isn't much to say about animals.

The movie "28 Days Later" directed by Danny Boyle conveys a sort of idea that these "monkeys / apes" are infected with "rage". In the first scene you would notice all of the trapped experiments in separate clear confinements. Nothing all that bad, until the three animal lovers come and release only one monkey / ape. The situation becomes a semi-bloody scene when a person was bitten.

Lets point one thing out, Zombies to a stereotypical view are viewed as rotting corpses wandering to have a piece of a brain. That view is only good until the brain part. Zombies are just like bacteria and / or virus banks that happen to take function of the whole entire body.

As you can see in the sample picture there is but just much blood. However zombies are just hosts of the virus in a simple statement. Get bit and you are very and likely possible to gain the disease. Hopefully this isn't true.

Lets wander our minds a little bit and pick some animals to choose from.

Here's my list.

1. A Fish (A Shark)

2. An Avian (Any bird would do except for chickens)

3. A canine (One that isn't too small to be killed in one bite)

4. Reptiles (A cold blooded animal: hopefully you know this)

Okay lets point out that sharks are somewhat dangerous. A great white would take a single bite out of any of us and leave the right next second knowing that we aren't really a fish or a seal. Our friend the shark would be a great start.

Here's the sceneario

An infected shark is traveling through the waters. He came by another shark. With it's new instincts to infect and continue to infect, he bites our Shark, but he bites on the subterminal notch.

Boom our shark is infected. I'm guessing not.

Understand that a shark is mostly bone and cartilage, plus a typical fish doesn't have much organs or blood vessels on the end fins. So our first part of the scenario is a plop.

but lets continue.

Knowing, our shark wags or slaps his tail. The infected shark however is technically not effected by this in any way. The infected shark looses its control of swimming.

Note: Sharks swim up so that they won't drown.

Our shark continues to swim, but why shouldn't he just take a hit? He returns a counter bite to the infected shark. Being an ace under the sea he takes an excellent attack by the left Gills and the Pectoral Fin. He then leaves leaving the infected shark to drown down to the depths of the ocean. An hour or even seconds (whatever time it takes) our shark is now an infected.

It is very obvious that our shark got some blood into his system and now he is going to find another shark to carry the disease, but if he is really dumb like his attacker and winds up bitting the end, our shark has little chance of surviving as a zombie shark.

Our chances of ever seeing fish this way is very slim. A fish would simply float to a side and die of oxygen or even eating by another fish either immune or a not possible carrier for the disease. If sharks do become zombified its clear that we should be safe until there are no more sharks left.

Zombie Shark? Yes, but there is very little chance of survival. A weeks time to kill off this species of fish.

People of New York or major cities YOU WILL NOT LIKE ZOMBIE PIGEONS!!! Lets take a good idea what a Avian is.

He's your good ol' chicken wing, the Thanksgiving Turkey, or your little canary. Lets take a nice look at their anatomy. 

Here we can see a simplified view of an inside of a bird. Notice the size of the heart. It would be an instant that disease would hit our avian fellows. Of course it depends on what they are doing as a zombie, attacking us or be any stupider than they really are.

Again we're going to play scenario

Scenario

A flock of common Pigeons flies towards Erny's house at Sesame St. to find Bert's pen of Pigeons. Bert notices a strange sound of flapping and a grey cloud coming by in the distance. With fear and paranoia in his mind he locks his pigeons in his pen and runs for safety in his apartment. The vast horde of infected pigeons comes and storms the pen assailing for a chance to pass the disease to another pigeon.

• "Side note, the infected are not in control of normal bodily functions hence the digestion system"

Chaos overwhelms the Pigeons in the pen and they are flying about. The infected come and they peck and peck the pen of pigeons. An hour later after the infected leave Bert returns to play with his pigeons. He clearly sees the destruction of what had happened and clearly ponders on. He then finds the feathers and tattered meat of his pigeons. The pigeons are dead.

Let me explain in a term we know as... Out Numbered.

I didn't specify the amount of infected for a reason. By any means if there are 1000 flying infected pigeons you better run, if not I pray that you are not covered by bird poop. Okay back to topic a pen for pet pigeons would be around 12 - as much pigeons you can fit in the dang box. These pen pigeons are no match against these infected pigeons and if they got in they will kill all of the pen pigeons. There are too many pecks that these infected will do. Their brains aren't all that great and they end up killing other pigeons.

My theory is that if pigeons become infected with a zombie virus only the first amount (around 100 - 2000) would be infected. Later on the amount of pecks by the 20 to 1 would kill the common rat with wings.

But what about raptors like eagles, hawks, or vultures?

According to what http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/birds/raptors/ say, "specialized enzymes and bacteria allow them to eat contaminated meat."

Now lets see we have a 50 - 50 thing going on with raptors. One is that they can become infected. Two is that they can become zombies, but if not infected they can eat the other zombies or infected.

I wouldn't hope much. Even if raptors become zombies I would say that they would only be on the land. One, attacks by these predators or scavengers can leave an infected unable to fly. The attacks might ripped or amputate a wing or both. Two, the biggest and strongest will only survive. Three, they can defend themselves.

Pigeon Zombies? Yes but not a danger, bring a umbrella.

Raptor Zombies? Yes yet there won't be much of them. The species can take care of themselves.

What about a Turkey Vultures? Your a smart ass aren't you...

A turkey vulture is a vulture that has a defensive mechanism to vomit / throw up against enemies. Hypothetically saying that a turkey vulture becomes a zombie and it decides to vomit as an infectious way of passing the virus, it's not possible. One, if they can think they can do, but do they? We don't know. Two, if the meat the vulture ate was infected meat or not, it wouldn't effect any other vulture or other animal that consumed it or not. The disease would've died a long time before the vomiting.

Yes...

If you watched or read "I Am Legend" you would totally agree. There isn't much needed to say about dogs. In a way we know much things about them already. Wolves and Bears, yes a bear is a canine, would only be the only problem. Big humongous strength and speed against other humans. Eek. Enough said.

Of my knowledge of 3 important reptiles, these reptiles can kills us or help us.

They are the:

1. Crocodile

2. Aligator

3. Komodo Dragon

Like vultures these reptiles can eat contaminated food, but unlike the vulture in some sorts, reptiles can kill bacteria and viruses which they can consume other than coping with it.

Lets scenario with the Crocodile and a Alligator.

Scenario Crocodile

An alligator begins to roam to find a spot to bask in the Florida sunshine and just seemingly finds itself in the sea.

Note: Alligators can swim in the sea.

Here at the moment, another wandering reptilian stumbles by. It's a crocodile not infected. It seems that there is a Nuclear Plant near by. They pass by each other and no particular event happens to either one. The alligator enters the waters of the Nuclear Plant and decides to bask in the sun with the many crocodiles. After a long time basking in the sun it decides to go back into the water and back to its sweet home at the mangroves. A crocodile follows him and the alligator gives no worry and swims off. A trail of blood is seen in the water and route behind the crocodile. It is infected and he still has much function of a reptilian brain.

Note: A crocodile's brain suggests that it would bite anything that looks like food

The alligator now is on a hunt for a quick meal. In a sudden second the crocodile attacks the gator at the top back. The gator takes it as a challenge and begins to surrender his mangrove area to the crocodile. Another strike and now the gator sees that the crocodile is after a heavy meal. The gator swims a considerable distance and tackles the crocodile. Taking an aggressive measure the infected tries to strike, but his movements now are too slow to keep up with the alligator. One last head butt and the crocodile is sent flying to a root of a mangrove. It is stabbed and dying. The gator escapes with a minor scratch without the jaws of the croc making a blood wound.

What happened here was that the alligator had more strength than the crocodile. The reason is that the virus had effected the metabolism and homeostasis of the crocodile. A first strike would prove to be the only attack the crocodile can do, but not being able to have enough energy to make a successful bite. The gator has the upper hand now and decides to take a chance to kill his enemy.

Komodo dragons on the other hand I would say a bite from them would be worse than becoming a zombie. A bite from a Komodo Dragon in the wild has a ridiculous amount of bacteria. I haven't much studied much about the Komodo Dragon other than knowing that little fact.