DO ZOMBIES FREEZE IN COLD WEATHER?
Many existing theories suggest that zombie blood must flow through the body in some manner (see: Blood Theories). ZRS Researcher, Kate Steinem, started with this baseline when looking into the commonly held belief that the undead freeze in cold weather.
First she observed that a zombie with flowing blood probably functions much more like a cold blooded animal, than the warm blooded human it used to be. From there she found startling evidence of creatures with cold blood surviving in extreme cold temperatures that would turn a living person into a hardened block of ice in a matter of minutes.
“Several species of cold blooded fish have a special substance in their blood, glycoprotein, that acts like anti-freeze to help them survive very cold water temperatures.”
Glycoprotein depresses the freezing temperature of blood sufficiently to render the body immune to the cold. Much like a bottle of vodka in a freezer box, while everything around it is frozen stiff, the vodka never changes from its liquid state.
Steinem argues that if the undead body is able to produce glycoprotein, or something similar, it would then have a workable system that no longer needs to regulate internal temperature to function. Though zombies would still likely move more slowly in extreme cold, their blood would never convert into a solid, continuing to flow and power the body.
Great. Just when I thought my escape plan to the artic circle was fool proof…
One could find out by observing if cold weather would at least slow zombies down if not incapacitate them. That could come in really handy depending on if they are fast or slow zombies. They also tend to congregate where the food is. An icy tundra is not the ideal place to find a good supply of people meat.
I think the mummification process will play a large role in the overall decomposition of the zombie as well. We know from history that under ideal conditions a human corpse can remain intact, and in some cases even retain a large portion of soft tissue, skin, etc (think of the bog mummies, for instance). Assuming some unknown agent is arresting or slowing decay, probably the same agent that revived the corpse in the first place, and we have a long list of potential unknown chemical reactions that could occur. Something -has- to be affecting the normal rate of decay or zombies would putrefy into liquid within a month in most climates.
It’s important to keep an open mind about these things, rather than simply assume zombies will freeze in inclement weather because popular fiction asserts that they will. With zombies, you’re always safer leaving the door of possibility open and preparing for the worst.
Why would zombies have flowing blood in the first place? If their hearts aren’t beating, then blood cannot flow. If anything, it might pool due to gravity (similar to livor mortis). One might argue, what if their hearts are beating? Don’t zombies not breath? Moving blood throughout the body is near useless if you aren’t transporting oxygen to muscles for movement.
Just some thoughts. Cool idea.
- King of the Zombies
There are several articles about possible zombie blood flow in the Blood Theory section.
I’ve been thinking more and more about this very subject. I think it’s just too trite and possibly naive to think that the undead will freeze solid once the temperature hits 32º. We have to accept that whatever agent makes them rise from the dead and arrests decay and powers their movements might also provide a certain amount of “anti-freeze” potential in their reanimated tissues. If zombies can move, something has to be providing the muscle tissue with the energy to contract to create movement. If the muscle tissue is capable of contracting then something is preventing it from turning into black rot like a normal corpse’s tissues would.
Horrifically, there’s a very real possibility that cold won’t do much of anything to zombies until it drops down to a level where it really will freeze them solid. We can die of hypothermia anytime our core body temp drops below 98º, but the zombies won’t.
The decomposition rate of a zombie is just slowed. Over a period of time, ten or even twenty years from its rise, the zombie will simply wear itself away, harsh weathers will speed that along nicely.
this is sounding like the l4d intro already there blood may not freeze but there tissues would
if an infected person can produce a glycoprotein like substance to keep the blood from freezing then yeah, we’re all royally boned all year round, but the human body dosnt produce anything like that. that being said, how would the infected obtain the ability to produce glycoprotein without undergoing thousands, maybe millions of years of evolution?
that being said, can zombies evolve?
well if it were simply bacteria it is just a matter of a few million generations of bacteria. What I am saying is that you could engineer a bacteria to produce a glycoprotein like substance.
The human body does create glycoprotein, just not in the blood.
If the virus could take DNA from the cells which use glycoproteins and put them in the blood, then it would do the same job as in the fish.
then wouldint the blood flow have to seep into a part of the body that has the protein and then flow back to the blood supply bringin its newly picked up bacteria with it, it sounds possible cause from their contact with each other blood cell,they contract and help replicate it,but is there any proof of white blood cells in the living dead,if so that could pose a problom
the virus itself that reanimated the corpse could have something like the glycoprotein in it. or just some for some reason the virus needed some sort of electrical outburst to get started wich means it would be a man made virus that electrical jolt might jumpstart a rapid multiplication process of some sort of sub bacteria inside the virus
i heard that shortly after death there is still electricity in the body. in leaving the body the electricity makes it move somewhat. do you think that could give he virus the push it needs?