Walker Sensory abilities?
Ya know, I just started thinking about the whole walker guts smell warding off zombies attacking you. Obviously, we know walkers can hear, see and smell, but shouldnt some of them rot, or be impaired to the point where they cant really detect people?
Ill start with smell. According to everything we know about zombies in the walking dead universe, the deciding factor on whether they want to chomp someone or not is if they smell good enough or not. But what if theres zombies that cant smell? Correct me if im wrong, but I think a MAJORITY of zombies dont even have a nose left, which would be indicative of some smelling loss, maybe even a complete loss.
Im not saying hordes of zombies wouldnt be able to smell, but what about the ones that cant? They can still hear and see, so they would follow the crowds still, but when a person walked up to them, they wouldnt care about biting them would they? They dont smell fresh meat, so they would keep on walking. Why even pull out their teeth to make them passive? Wouldnt it be even more effective to smash them in the nose?
For sight, it should be effective to shine bright light in their eyes, they might still smell you to figure out what direction youre in, but they wouldnt be able to navigate terrain. Even throwing sand in their eyes, they might not feel it or blink, but bits of sand will still be on the surface of their eyes and make it more difficult to see
For hearing, i dont really have any plausible theories as to how to exploit that, but still in theory, there should be deaf zombies as well that arent attracted by noise
Comments
I've always thought this too. They're rotting corpses so the eyes, ears, tongue, etc...would eventually rot away....
I just let it go
I think it has more to do with the actual virus itself. Remember that viruses are living because they're parasites.
I was under the impression that the only way to make them docile was removing the jaw and arms, like Michonne did in the comics/show.
Because this is a virus, the viruses sole purpose is to spread to as many host bodies as possible. This means that it is controlling the corpse to bite so the infection will spread, but it's sort of on full drive "You are programmed to just bite" so the walkers go over the top and physically eat the victim.
Again this probably applies to hearing. Can viruses hear... Nope not that I'm aware of. They can't exactly smell either.
But the more you think in to it you start to realise how impractical zombies become in the real world.
So we're safe.
The only way I can see something like this occurring is 28 Days Later zombies.
The host is infected by "rage" (Most likely some bioweaponised version of rabies) but they are still alive, which means they get infected within seconds of being exposed to the virus.
Because they are alive, the sensory system does not decompose which would make more sense that the virus could fully utilise it.