Quote:It seems the walkers go into a hibernation mode when they can't move or are contained. I also think they become more sluggish the older they get. We've seen plenty of times were when one is stuck or immobile come to life when disturbed.

The smells. They can differentiate between dead and alive through smell. One episode the characters essentially dressed up as walkers to mask their smell so they could walk amogst the walkers. I do wonder why they don't use this more often. And also what happens when the walkers nose is chopped off. Does it solely rely on sound and sight and take a bite out of anything? I dunno.

To me the only explanation for how they sense food is something along the lines of pack mentality coupled with some form of instinct. for example, why would the only way people(at least most of the time in twd) avoid walkers is by staying out of sight and not covering their trail on the smell level. it's almost like when one walker visually sees or hears something they turn and others begin to follow. i know the instance you are talking about with someone dressed up as a walker and mingling with walkers unharmed(i feel like it was carol too) and i think its happen more than once... tbh they should probably use it more often because iirc it has always worked lol. but to me the reason they are not being attacked has to be because they are not behaving out of the ordinary, in terms of not acting like a walker, and generally the way a person can tell if something is not behaving like the rest of the group is by sight and sound and not smell.... kinda funny, but i just remembered zombieland where bill murray dresses up like a zombie and talks about how he played golf and stuff... text book bill murray in an Apocalypse  lol.

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