7 Zombies From Nature

My eyes! My eyes! Within the temperate forests of North America lurks the green-banded broodsac flatworm, a parasite that preys on the amber snail, turning its existence into an invertebrate nightmare. Snails unknowingly digest the parasitic eggs through a favorite food—bird droppings. Once hatched, the parasite invades the snail’s eyestalks, turning them into long, green, pulsating cones. Spellbound by the flatworm, the zombified snail, which normally hides from predators in the shade, heads for sunny, open spaces where birds mistake the possessed tentacles for tasty caterpillar larvae. And the nightmare begins again.

It’s alive! Lying dormant under the earth for more than 80 years, cattails, lotus and other water plants surprised scientists by springing back to life after The Nature Conservancy restored more than 6,000 acres of Illinois wetlands that had been leveed, ditched and cleared for farmland in the 1920s. The Conservancy purchased the land—now known as Emiquon Preserve—in 2000 and, in 2007, turned off the pumps that had drained the land. When water returned, native plants reawakened. Dragonflies, egrets, geese, pelicans and otters soon returned. Take a virtual tour of Emiquon Preserve.

Siblings make yummy baby food! Sand tiger sharks know the value of family. The nutritional value, that is. The pregnancy of the female sand tiger shark (a.k.a. the ragged tooth shark) can start with numerous embryos in its two wombs. When the embryonic eggs hatch and the babies develop inside the mother there is no placenta for nourishment. So the most well developed pup in each womb devours its siblings and any unfertilized eggs, drawing strength from the protein-rich diet. Usually one pup from each womb survives and is born about 3 feet long. Learn more about sharks.

Corpse found among decaying plants. Like a skeletal hand reaching up from the grave, the Indian pipe (a.k.a. Corpse Plant) is unmistakable. It grows in shady temperate forests with rich soil and decaying plant matter and is often found near dead stumps. Waxy and white, this ancient medicinal plant doesn’t have chlorophyll—the green pigment necessary for photosynthesis. So how does the Indian pipe get its energy? It’s a parasite, feeding on the nutrients of underground fungi and nearby tree roots. Be careful not to pick this wildflower—it will quickly turn black in your hand. Devil’s Den Preserve in Connecticut is one of many Conservancy sites to spot the corpse plant.

Sleeping like the dead. What Halloween feature would be complete without bats? While not all bats hibernate, the ones that do can be some of nature’s most intense sleepers, nearly dead to the world. Able to slow their metabolism, bats can drop their heart rates and breathing rates significantly. Bats have been known to slow their heart rate from 1,000 beats per minute to 24, while others have been observed taking a single breath in two hours. During hibernation, some bats can survive in freezing temperatures, even after being encased in ice. Bats and more bats!

A fiery birth! Out of the ashes unique and threatened orchids come to life! While fire is not advised as a weapon for fighting the walking dead, it has been known to resurrect dying landscapes and plants. Following a controlled burn, the threatened white-fringe orchid appeared in a bog on state lands near Georgia’s Fall Line Sandhills for the first time ever this past summer. Further north on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a rare hybrid of the white-fringed orchid and the crested yellow orchid was found for the first time in 18 years at the Conservancy’s Nassawango Creek Preserve after a prescribed burn.

Brains! Brain and finger corals look like something zombies like to eat. But these stony corals, along with other coral species, have been known to come back from the (not-so) dead. When water temperatures rise, polyps (the tiny coral animals) and the algae that give the structure its color can appear dead from what is known as a coral bleaching. But Conservancy scientists in the Virgin Islands and along Florida’s coast are finding that not all bleaching events are fatal, especially if they are short lived. Some corals have been known to recover or “come back to life” from apparent bleaching as water temperatures return to normal.