5 fan questions about The Walking Dead answered for May 27, 2017
By Adam Carlson
#3. The diet of a walker
I know you are sick of me, but a discussion with friends prompted this question: why don't walkers feast on other walkers?
— Sarah J. Crist (@ubiquitousurn) May 27, 2017
First of all, Sarah wanted to give credit for this question to @ilove4paws, who wasn’t sure why walkers only eat the living creatures and not other members of the undead and how they tell the difference.
As a plot device, it makes sense for the ‘zombies’ not to go after the dead. In fact, these members of the undead are typically used to represent how death is coming for people and how fragile life can be along with why people should fight for the things they really want.
For me, I think of this question in two ways. The walkers recognize the living through their movement patterns and smell (strange considering how mindless these ‘monsters’ are supposed to be), which is why when covered in walker guts and slowly moving through a herd works quite well.
My question is how the masking of human scent works. Would walkers approach a person covered in cologne to mask the human smell as long as they did the zombie walk? Or is it just the camouflage of smelling like one of their own the key component in deterring them?