system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Zombies] A zombie apocalypse has occurred, but the virus and the zombies completely ignore anything that isn't human. What's the best way to take advantage of this fact?
gpt
For actively fighting zombies, train an elite strike force of African crowned eagles.

Eagles are one of the most lethal predators in the animal kingdom pound-for-pound. For example, the golden eagle- which, in the case of the big females, can reach up to about 7kg- is perfectly capable of hunting reindeer (though their mobility means calves are the preferred prey item). They have two main methods of hunting large animals, both centred around talons as long as fingers and toes as strong as a rottweiler's jaws.

The first method is using their claws as meathooks, latching onto prey and combining wing-battering, weight and a kneading action with the talons to exhaust prey until it's too weak to resist being eaten alive. This is the best attack versus prey they're instinctively unfamiliar with. Zombies, being zombies, are likely not going to be too affected- so that makes the classic eagle options a poor option.

The other method is surgical strikes on the nervous system- the skull and spinal cord- and this is where the particular choice of eagle comes in.

While humans are an invasive species on most continents, it's only been a few million years since small hominids were a common prey item for many African predators. As well as extinct species like short-fanged sabertoothed cats, many of these predators still survive to the present day, such as leopards and hyenas. The African crowned eagle is one of these predators.

Fossil evidence shows they were willing and able to attack humanoid prey, the most famous example being the Taung Child. Part of a chimp-sized species of ancient pre-fire human called *Australopithecus africanus*, the child would have been equivalent to a seven-year-old in modern human years (as a prey species they likely developed much faster than us). The bones show the child died a violent death- and in particular, a death-by-eagle, with the African crowned being the most likely culprit.

Unlike more conventional hunting animals such as dogs, which would likely still need the zombie to be killed manually, the death of the Taung child showed us that when hunting humans, an eagle will naturally at least try to go for the brain. Depression on the skull and perforations inside the child's eye socket are frequently seen in modern monkeys, and while a harpy eagle might be bigger and stronger, they're also much rarer and don't do well in open habitat.

Hunting zombies with an eagle is probably one of the most efficient ways of hunting down lone zombies. With incredible eyesight, low food requirements, easy transport, a long history of taming from wild animals, and combining wariness of healthy humans with an instinctive capability to attack and kill them, a trained eagle would be able to locate and attack non-hording zombies with impunity. And rather than messily ripping them apart like a dog might, a crowned eagle's attack strategy would be much safer and cleaner for a zombie-hunter. If the skull is too strong for the eagle to just kill the zombie outright, you'll still be dealing with a blinded zombie that has a skull pre-punctured to assist you with a successful kill.

Another option is- once it's been long enough to clear medical drugs from the body- training vultures to attack zombies. While most animals would be put off by the rot, vultures are the perfect zombie predator. For the more predatory species, such as black vultures, they might not even need humans to figure out that zombies are an ideal food source- mobile to attract their keen eyesight, a disagreeable food source for animals that would frequently steal a vulture's kill, and unwilling to fight back. However, some of the drugs humans use can be lethal to vultures, causing organ failure and rapid death, so it's a question of whether so many human dead would be a boon to the vultures or the last nail in the coffin, perhaps varying by continent.

While travelling with animals might sound like a good idea, it's something to be careful of. Humans' natural predatory strategy is to repeatedly disturb animals trying to rest, and zombies would likely end up having a similar effect, exhausting animals until they either die or leave the zombies path (ie your group). While many domestic animals have the stamina to keep up or can be left semi-feral and collected later, it's a risky strategy if you don't know your animal's limits.

If you're keeping dogs, training them as alarm dogs rather than guard dogs would likely be better- though the virus might ignore a dog, gore on their fur or insufficiently-digested meat in their droppings (which is a problem where dogs have replaced vultures as top scavengers) could potentially be a vector of zombification. A reasonably-intelligent trained animal that can trample them instead, such as a donkey or elephant, may help in limiting contact between the bits that kill zombies and the bits that interact with humans- elephants are capable of empathy, so perhaps semi-wild elephants would be willing to pulp any zombies they see in return for easy access to water and whatnot.

Perhaps the best use, though, is as a natural barrier. While the thought of zombies crawling around underneath your boat might be scary, many rivers and seas are home to scavengers that can ensure they simply won't last that long. Crocodiles and catfish of unusual size are generally the only aquatic animals that are perfectly willing to attack and eat humans- as long as you avoid swimming in murky water that makes them bite rather than observe to sate their curiosity, sharks are pretty harmless.

So if you're moving towards shore and there's a zombie under your boat, all you need to do is move into deep water and wait for the scavengers to bring it down on your behalf. You can even give them a helping hand by finding a nice dinner-bell to ring- sound travels much further underwater than on land, and as out of sight is out of mind, a feeding frenzy of sharks beneath your boat is likely to result in much less mental trauma than killing the zombies yourself.