But the fungus made plant-climbing zombies only out of the species that it naturally infects in the wild. The parasite could kill all of the different ants she introduced to it. There, her team infected a few species of ant with the South Carolina fungus.
This is likely due to the fact that trees and plants in this state lose their leaves in the winter.ĭe Bekker began these studies at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. These ants, though, bite down on twigs instead of leaves. It, too, forces ants to leave their colonies and climb. cousin is a fungus native to South Carolina. So she and her team have been studying a species related to the Ophiocordyceps fungus in Thailand. This provides ideal conditions for the fungus to grow and release its spores.īiologist Charissa de Bekker wants to better understand how that fungus exerts that mind control over the ants. And it makes the ant do this when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. In Thailand, a species of fungus - Ophiocordyceps - can force an ant to climb almost exactly 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) up a plant, to face north and then to bite down on a leaf. To ensure this part-time host gets eaten by a cat, the parasite turns rats into cat-loving zombies. But first, this parasite must live for a time in a different animal, such as a rat. Toxoplasma gondii (TOX-oh-PLAZ-ma GON-dee-eye) is a single-celled creature that can only complete its life cycle inside a cat. To make this happen, it forces its insect host to leap into a lake or swimming pool. The horsehair worm, for instance, needs to emerge in water. This helps the parasite because it needs a cat to eat the rat for its life cycle to continue. One parasite causes infected rats to become attracted to the smell of cat pee. Most real zombies are doomed to die - and some have very little control over their actions. “In no way are these animals coming back from the dead,” she says. True zombies, she points out, aren’t exactly like the type you find in horror stories. She is particularly interested in “zombie” creatures. She is a biologist who studies parasites at Rice University in Houston, Texas. “It blows my mind,” says Kelly Weinersmith. Yet somehow they still control the brains of larger, and smarter, animals. And worms and single-celled critters obviously aren’t very smart. Brains, brains! Ant brains!Ī fungus doesn’t have a brain.
Researchers are working hard to identify which chemicals are involved and how they end up so bizarrely altering their host’s behavior. How do parasites turn insects and other animals into the walking almost-dead? Every parasite has its own method, but the process usually involves altering chemicals within the victim’s brain. In order to accomplish these tricks, some parasites have evolved the ability to hack into the host’s brain and influence its behavior in very specific ways. A parasite might get its host to die in a certain place, or be eaten by a certain creature. But death of the host isn’t the freakiest goal. Sometimes, the parasite kills or even eats its host. All parasites eventually weaken or sicken their hosts. A parasite may be a fungus, a worm or another tiny creature. A parasite lives inside or on another creature, known as its host. Zombie rats are drawn to the smell of the pee of cats that may devour them.Īll of these “zombies” have one thing in common: parasites. Zombie crickets, beetles and praying mantises drown themselves in water. Zombie fish flip around and dart toward the surface of the water, seeming to beg for birds to eat them. Zombie spiders and cockroaches babysit developing wasp larvae - until the babies devour them.
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The natural world is full of zombies under mind control. However weird this might seem, it isn’t all that unusual. In order to grow and spread, this fungus must hijack an ant’s brain. That new web will protect the larva as it develops into an adult wasp. The wasp larva on its back controls the spider’s brain, forcing it to spin a special web. Underneath that worm-like thing is a spider - now a zombie. Its spores infect other ants, which lets the zombie cycle begin anew. And the stalk that emerges from its head is a fungus. This is no Halloween story about the zombie apocalypse. The stalk then spews out spores that spread, turning others into zombies. When it reaches a good spot, it freezes in place.
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