Could zombies starve to death? But they are already dead.

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Recently I find myself thinking about what would happen to zombies if they no longer had humans or any living creature, with the exception of bugs, to munch on. Could I possibly be that bored that I find myself thinking about it once or twice a day since Thursday night?

The part that has me stumped is that they are already dead so how could the lack of nourishment actually affect them? Would they start eating bugs? Since there wouldn't be dead mammals laying around would the poor little bugs have enough to eat? Maybe they would start to eat the zombies? Would the zombies munch on each other?

Can you visualize the last zombie left in the Americas? And I do mean North, Central and South. There is nothing for him/her/it to eat. Does he/she/it start cannibalizing his/her/it's own body? Do you think the creature could possibly have the ability to think so that he/she/it would start swimming?

This plot could make for a funny cartoon. So what do you think could happen to zombies if there weren't any more living, breathing humans or animals for them to eat?

By the way I think there are just too many books being published nowadays with zombies, vampires and werewolves. Consider a book that has a main character composed of all three creatures. Maybe it would be a werewolf who is dead and only consumes blood. That would leave something for the poor starving ants and other insects to eat.

Do you have any ideas to complete the plot?

The zombies would probably all become vegetarians, after that avenue had been exhausted they would have to turn to cannibalism or face death? (this is all making the assumption that the zombies are able to discover and adjust to their new found energy sources) But in saying this it is assumed that zombies need to eat to sustain their continued existence, in the hypothetical universe in which zombies exist I suppose one could make exceptions to the accepted laws if our universe and just assume that they can survive indefinitely with no sustenance. In that case, it's interesting to speculate on the behaviour of the zombies, after you have eliminated food from the equation, zombies have no real goals and therefore could survive by doing nothing, but would they? perhaps they would gain some form of sentience but if they live indefinitely, what then? would some assemblance of a social hierarchy emerge over the years, would it resemble our own? would they rebuild the ruins of our civilization as an escape from the monotony of their immortality? would they know how?...

In my opinion based on my love of zombie films, I think that technically zombies would not starve to death. Their cells are already dead, and although they are motivated to eat brains or flesh or whatever, I don't think it necessarily fuels them (they are fueled by the virus or curse or whatever brought them back from the dead). They don't have any power to regenerate themselves (ie a broken ankle stays broken and they just walk on it), so I think the act of eating is actually only the outcome of their violent aggression, not a physical hunger in the sense that we think of it.

Just my two cents, I think about zombies a lot too because it is the one genre of horror that I enjoy and find interesting.

You have a point there, also reminded me of this http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/ficti ... immortals/

I've only started watching season 2 of The Walking Dead and the scene where she breaks the chicken's legs to make it flightless to feed to the walkers comes to mind.

I think the feeding was done more under the impression that they "could" be hungry more than they "are". Done out of compassion.