Video Shows Cockroach “Karate Kicking” Wasp, Saving It From Zombification

Make no mistake, zombies are very real. Sure, zombies of the human variety aren’t going to wander down your street, The Walking Dead-style, any time soon, but zombies of a different sort are scuttling around, mindlessly wandering towards a doomed existence. The American cockroach, for example, spends a good amount of its time trying not to become a zombie at the metaphorical hands of emerald jewel wasps. If it doesn’t put up the right defense, it’s brain-warped toast.

In the video above, you can see what happens when a cockroach successfully defends itself against zombification. These guarding mechanisms are the focus of a study published Wednesday in the journal Brain, Behavior and Evolution. Study author and Vanderbilt University biologist Ken Catania, Ph.D., carefully filmed and analyzed 55 cockroach-versus-wasp battles and discovered that certain moves can help a cockroach avoid harm.

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