What Is a Zombie In stories and movies zombies are dead people But they have come back to life A magic spell controls them They are like slaves to someone else Most of these tales are made up But some animals act like zombies Yikes Animals called parasites control them Parasites are living things that feast on others Their victims are called hosts 4
5 This fish louse is a parasite It doesn’t make fish turn into zombies though
Where does the word zombie come from Q 6 Roundwoms lay their tiny eggs in a host’s belly We need a microscope to see them
Sometimes parasites live in an animal’s belly They eat some of the victim’s food Other times the parasite or its babies eat the host itself They might slurp the host’s body fluids like blood Gross But zombie-making parasites are special They turn their hosts into slaves They force them to do strange things The hosts act like zombies A It comes from Haiti It means spirit of the dead Stories in Haiti tell of a witch that raises the dead and makes them slaves 7
