Can you rely on zombies to signal that another player is around over long distances?

[Leto (DayZ) 72]

I noticed that sometimes zombies only seem to spawn and walk out of a house in group after I run into a seemingly empty town. Does that mean that when there are no players around, zombies disappear? Can I assume that if I see zombies far away in a town when using a scope or binoculars, that someone else has triggered the "zombie spawn"? Or does simply looking at the area also makes zombies appear?

[TheDuriel 26]

zombies spawn 200m around players

[sasrecon 133]

Yes, if you hold the right mouse button, you may find that peripheral dots appear more on the left side of the screen than the right, but you can look around you and pinpoint big groups of peripherals/zombies which mean there's a player in that area

[joanjett (DayZ) 31]

never thought of that - good tip!

[bigdogsco 143]

Maybe have a read at this thread you might find it useful

http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/86751-demystification-of-the-dayz-loot-spawn-system-spoiler/page__fromsearch__1