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The zombies living in our midst : Short Wave The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in the animal kingdom. To kick off Halloween week, science writer Ed Yong of The Atlantic creeps us out with a couple of examples. Hint: they involve fungus. (Encore episode)

Read more of Ed's reporting on:
- The zombie fungus controlling ants' brains: https://bit.ly/2Zk79nA
- How to Tame a Zombie Fungus: https://bit.ly/3E13QAc

Haunted by other creepy crawlies in the animal kingdom you think we should know about? Please email the show at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love a little afternoon fright!

Short Wave

The zombies living in our midst

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Madeline Sofia

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The zombies living in our midst

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An ant is host of the parasitic Ophiocordyceps fungus. Katja Schulz/Flickr hide caption

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Katja Schulz/Flickr

An ant is host of the parasitic Ophiocordyceps fungus.

Katja Schulz/Flickr

The idea of human zombies probably seems pretty far-fetched. But there are real zombies out there in the animal kingdom. To kick off Halloween week, science writer Ed Yong of The Atlantic creeps us out with a couple of examples. Hint: they involve fungus. (Encore episode)

Read Ed's reporting:

Haunted by other creepy crawlies in the animal kingdom you think we should know about? Please email the show at shortwave@npr.org — we'd love a little afternoon fright!

This episode was produced by Rebecca Ramirez and edited by Viet Le. Natasha Branch was the audio engineer.