Just wondering, food for thought,
Do zombies have a thermal image?

I would say no. And zombies don't breath but on tv and movies they make sounds. How do they do that if they don't breath? And if you get infected by a bite then the blood that gets all over you can infect too. Too many questions!!!!!!!!!    

I would think so as bacteria grows and the flesh rots it should cause heat I don't know though. Just not the same heat signature as a living human. I am only speculating. Dead bodies do expel gases from the gut that escape from the mouth and it can sound weird and freaky. So theoretically sound could come from their abdomen being compressed from movement and sucking air in like that. Not breathing but who knows lol

I always wondered about that too. I figured maybe just moving around might expand/compress the torso so as to incidentally intake and expell air. Hadn't thought about decomposition gasses but I guess that could work too.
Without circulation by the heart, wouldn't blood pool in the legs? And unless the virus somehow prevents it, wouldn't blood coagulate? I'd guess blood and bodily fluids would not infect you unless they got into you through a break in the skin, eyes, sexual contact ( ) etc. but there shouldn't BE any fluids as far as I can tell, unless the Z is a fresh kill.

Oh, you asked about heat signature didn't you? I vote no.

A piece of meat outside still shows up as ambient temperature. It's minuscule heat signature is overwhelmed by the ambient air temps. Think about it, if not every pile of leaves would have a heat signature.

compost would have a heat signature as it breaks down. not much of one, but could pick it up.

Yes zombies have a heat signature. Rocks, trees, grass have heat signatures.

The answer is "yes" because everything has an thermal image. But the zombie will have a lower thermal signature then a human. Humans will glow brightly as they are 98.6 degrees, while a zombie will be ambient air temperature, similar to a jug of water.



So humans will glow like the hogs, while Zombies will appear more like the trees.

Correct.

Zombies are dead people. No operating bodily functions to produce any heat as all bodily cells have died and all organs have ceased to function. Obviously no heat and no heat signature.

No. Because zombies aren't real.

Recently killed things are visible, until they cool, but yesterday's decaying body (pig) has no useful  thermal image on the type of gear we hunt with.  (Liquids cooled sensors, capable of showing fractions of a degree might)

The thermal mass of the body will make it heat and cool a little slower than things with less thermal mass, but we are talking about the difference between a live tree trunk and a dead tree trunk.

Now in the interesting category, in the hours just before sunrise, when the woods have all lost their heat from the previous day's sun, you can occasionally make termites in fallen trees and such (bacteria actively?) ...but that is only under special conditions.  Not easy to see and definable not something I want to rely on when Zombie hunting