In a zombie apocalpyse

[dehro]

mmh
I was told that the answer to that question would be:
they don't smell like anything
..on account of being pretty much odourless, pheromones more so than testosterones...especially for our less than optimal scent ability...safe for possibly being perceived on a very subconscious level.

my point is that a zombie sniffing at the wind to find his next prey... wouldn't really have much luck if he based his search on perceiving pheromones and testosterones.
am I imagining things or does science back me up on this?

[Traab]

So i guess we're ruling magically created zombies? I've noticed that the discourse seems to circle around the nature of bio zombies. If they were magic none of this would matter, but it would also mean that someone was probably directly controlling them giving them the edge of intelligence on their side.

but yeah, the whole mangled body, mangled face, super powerful senses thing never made sense to me either.

I never assumed they had super senses myself, unless we go magic zombies, I just figured that since they arent able to track us down by thinking about it, they must have to rely on their senses somehow to hunt. For example, I doubt a zombie can tell the difference between testosterone and estrogen by scent, but he could smell something different in the area than is normally there and go towards it. Or hear a sound of scuffling off in the distance, or see movement and go for them. Those two would explain the zombie swarm phenomenon. The zombie sees movement and shambles towards it, finding another zombie. They both hear a noise and stumble across more zombies, eventually there is a huge crowd and the ambient noise they produce is enough to attract any other zombies within a mile of their current location. Bang, a swarm that just keeps growing alrger.

[Johel]

So i guess we're ruling magically created zombies? I've noticed that the discourse seems to circle around the nature of bio zombies. If they were magic none of this would matter, but it would also mean that someone was probably directly controlling them giving them the edge of intelligence on their side.

but yeah, the whole mangled body, mangled face, super powerful senses thing never made sense to me either.

Unless they ate their creator...

But yeah, let's assume they are magic.
As a survivor, we might certainly not know that right away.
So we might want to understand first what they are.
Hence the need to make small scale tests whenever it looks safe once you have a positive confirmation that help isn't coming with guns and tanks.

• How fast can they move ?
• How smart are they ?
• How strong are they ?
• How can they locate you ?
• How can they infect you ? (that one might be tricky to figure out...)

Magic or not, you want to know you foe.

[Coidzor]

I never assumed they had super senses myself, unless we go magic zombies, I just figured that since they arent able to track us down by thinking about it, they must have to rely on their senses somehow to hunt. For example, I doubt a zombie can tell the difference between testosterone and estrogen by scent, but he could smell something different in the area than is normally there and go towards it. Or hear a sound of scuffling off in the distance, or see movement and go for them. Those two would explain the zombie swarm phenomenon. The zombie sees movement and shambles towards it, finding another zombie. They both hear a noise and stumble across more zombies, eventually there is a huge crowd and the ambient noise they produce is enough to attract any other zombies within a mile of their current location. Bang, a swarm that just keeps growing alrger.

It seems like there'd be an eventual problem with that where eventually they'd be making so much noise that it'd take a lot of effort to make enough noise that they wouldn't drown it all out...

And forget about smell except for something very strong and very near...

[Traab]

Unless they ate their creator...

But yeah, let's assume they are magic.
As a survivor, we might certainly not know that right away.
So we might want to understand first what they are.
Hence the need to make small scale tests whenever it looks safe once you have a positive confirmation that help isn't coming with guns and tanks.

• How fast can they move ?
• How smart are they ?
• How strong are they ?
• How can they locate you ?
• How can they infect you ? (that one might be tricky to figure out...)

Magic or not, you want to know you foe.

The last one is easy, I just grab the first guy I stumble across eager to create a dictatorship and run experiments with the zombie I captured. "Hmm, ok, just breathing in the same air apparently isnt enough. Hmm, ok, so cutting the guy and leaving the bleeding wound open isnt doing it either, that takes air transmission out of the equation. Ah, rubbing some zombie juices on the open cut seems to have created an infection at the source, but no zombiefication. Ok, time to remove the chicken coop wire separating them and letting the zombie have a bite. YUP! That did it! Nothing but a bite manages to turn a person."

In all seriousness though, I most definitely see groups grabbing zombies to run most of those tests. As an example, put a lexan sheet with holes drilled in them between the zombie and a volunteer, and place a pressure sensor in the plastic. When the zombie tries to break through you can get all sorts of info like how hard can they push, how hard can they hit, do they learn from their situation or will it mindlessly keep whacking away at the lexan trying to reach the human?

Testing the senses can be done by careful sensory deprivation. Block off all its senses but one and see if bringing in the volunteer gets its attention. Then switch senses and work with that. Once you figure out which senses seem to work, see if you can figure out the sensitivity and how they compare to still living humans. Of course, this could only happen in a scenario where the government hasnt totally fallen, and there are still groups capable of performing research like this and spreading word of the findings.

[mattrwh]

Of course, this could only happen in a scenario where the government hasnt totally fallen, and there are still groups capable of performing research like this and spreading word of the findings.

You lost me till this point. Obviously your run of the mill survivors won't have the time or resources to do this, but I can conceive of a functioning government trying to "learn" about its enemy through such tests.

The idea of a government sending out messages to survivors draws up scenes in my head of groups huddled around radios muttering to themselves... "see? the government's still out there. they know what this thing is, they're gonna figure it out and they're gonna fix this... just wait and see!"

*cue zombie attack

[Traab]

It seems like there'd be an eventual problem with that where eventually they'd be making so much noise that it'd take a lot of effort to make enough noise that they wouldn't drown it all out...

And forget about smell except for something very strong and very near...

True, but then again, we dont have a lot of information on zombie migration patterns, so its hard to tell what they would do then, short of wandering randomly until they spot a survivor then swarm around his safe house until he dies. It could also be like the large schools of fish. Only the ones on the outside edge actually know why they suddenly turned around and swam in the opposite direction, everyone else is just following along.

[dehro]

You lost me till this point. Obviously your run of the mill survivors won't have the time or resources to do this, but I can conceive of a functioning government trying to "learn" about its enemy through such tests.

The idea of a government sending out messages to survivors draws up scenes in my head of groups huddled around radios muttering to themselves... "see? the government's still out there. they know what this thing is, they're gonna figure it out and they're gonna fix this... just wait and see!"

*cue zombie attack

you mean like what happened in WW2 with radio london?

[Riverdance]

mmh
I was told that the answer to that question would be:
they don't smell like anything
..on account of being pretty much odourless, pheromones more so than testosterones...especially for our less than optimal scent ability...safe for possibly being perceived on a very subconscious level.

my point is that a zombie sniffing at the wind to find his next prey... wouldn't really have much luck if he based his search on perceiving pheromones and testosterones.
am I imagining things or does science back me up on this?

I don't think zombies would have a very good sense of smell either, what with their olfactory centers being rotted.

[inexorabletruth]

Not all zombies are rotten.

I suppose before making any sort of supposition about how zombies hunt, it should be stated what kind of zombies we're up against.

The classic undead curse zombies?
Chemical spill zombies?
Virus zombies?
Super zombies?

Personally, I'm a big fan of the chemical spill zombies. Undead curse zombies act more like ghouls, and virus zombies aren't undead, and therefore shouldn't really be called zombies. Super zombies are just OP, and I like balance.

But each zombie has a different motif.

Cursed Zombies:

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Undead curse zombies are controlled by an evil witch doctor or by some other unseen power, and therefore hunt by a hidden intelligence that seeks out life, and therefore doesn't need any of it's 5 senses to hunt and kill. Ghouls and such act on the will of their master and have no unique intelligence.

Chemical Spill/Military Experiment Zombies:

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Chemical spill zombies have an intelligence, but it's limited and single-minded in focus. Brraaaaaiiinns. All the cursory biting and scratching they do is just to get them closer to the prize. They may hunt with all their senses, but what they are really after is brain activity. Perhaps they crave electrolytes, as stated in Return of the Living Dead (check reference, it's one of the Living Dead movies). I like this idea, because that means I could arm myself with Gatorade, balloons and super-soakers and pretty much turn the zombie horde against itself, but I digress. Moving on. If they are hunting for electrolytes or some other brain chemical, then perhaps it is a chemical attraction similar to a sense of smell. At which point they would have little trouble telling the difference between low brain-activity zombies and living, thinking humans.

Virus Zombies:

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Virus Zombies, like the ones in 28 days later, don't make much sense to me. They seem to work well as a team, which doesn't seem logical at all, since they are the embodiment of rage. Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 seems to have fixed this somewhat, because you will see them fighting each other from time to time, but there still seems to be a preference towards attacking uninfected humans first. And, virus zombies don't particularly crave human brains or flesh... just violence. Therefore, they aren't hunting for humans at all, just something to destroy. At which point, you can say that they have no extrasensory capabilities or magical compulsion to attack. They just use their mundane senses to hunt down something living to tear apart, which is more than enough to accomplish their goal.

Super Zombies:

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I hate these kinds of zombies. They make absolutely no sense... and we're talking about a world where I'm prepared to accept witch doctor zombies. How does a virus turn people into super-people, but with limited brain activity and a feral nature that goes way beyond psychopathic tendencies? Take Day of the Dead, 2008. How can they suddenly jump 50 feet from a dead stand, climb walls and ceilings like spiderman, and do all sorts of other crazy crap that no human can do? Although it does make them scarier than your typical flesh eating zombie, it causes too much eye-rolling to allow me to get into the concept. Still, they seem to be just as surprised when they find a survivor as the survivor is to see them, so I'm willing to bet they hunt the same way regular Virus Zombies do.

[Karoht]

I say Super Zombies because at least they are a credible threat. slow and easy to kill zombies aren't a threat and would be put down by police/military with relative ease once they realized what was going on.

Super Zombies and mutated infected (see Left4Dead series) is the kinds of zombies that actually stand a chance of being the apocalyptic threat that we are discussing.

Any kind of zombie outbreak, I'll be assuming Super Zombie capabilities every step of the way, just in case.

[inexorabletruth]

Then in that case, they probably hunt with the same natural senses that humans hunt with. The best way to hide from them is to use common modern stealth tactics and equipment.

If they can't see you, hear you, or smell you, they will most likely pass you by.