Brother Varn just wanted to hunt down and destroy the zombie. The zombie just wanted to wander around and maul people. The dire anteater just wanted the opportunity to lie around and digest a good meal. Guess who got what they wanted?

(Dire anteaters have the ability to slowly change their fur color. This helps camouflage them, and many a search party has not noticed the "mossy lump" up on a big tree branch that would explain what happened to the missing person or persons.)