Zombie horror series The Last of Us might feel a little more real after you learn about a fungus that infects cave spiders and turns them into "zombie" arachnids.

It's the stuff of nightmares - or even the hit TV show and video game The Last of Us: a novel fungus that turns its hosts into "zombies". Thankfully, so far, it's only been found in spiders located in several cave systems across the island of Ireland, including the Whitefathers' Caves on the Fermanagh/Cavan border.

A fungus named in honour of Sir David Attenborough has been found infecting and manipulating spiders in a Northern Ireland cave turning them into The Last of Us -style “ zombies ”.

Researchers discovered a fungus turning spiders into “zombies”, similar to the zombie ant fungus that inspired the post-apocalyptic TV show The Last of Us

It was found to display the creepy properties seen in zombie-ant fungi, insect-pathogenic fungi that infect and manipulate the behavior of ants.

A new fungus, Gibellula attenboroughii, was discovered on spiders in Irish caves. It changes their behavior, similar to zombie-ant fungi.

Shooting great documentary footage requires some luck, and a BBC nature series hit the jackpot while filming in Northern Ireland in 2021. As Popular Science reports, a team of scientists working on Winterwatch discovered a new type of fungus that zombifies its spider hosts.