The Chernobyl landscape is quite varied much of it remains pristine, while pockets still harbor high levels of radiation. Instead, Møller’s work shows that “hot” areas with high levels of radiation have low populations of wildlife, and it follows that animals that linger in these regions may sustain genetic damage. Furthermore, he contests the idea that wolves are “thriving” in Chernobyl, as some scientists have suggested, saying that wolves are also doing well in other areas of Europe. In other smaller animals in the area, exposure to radiation has been associated with tumors, cataracts, smaller brains, and certain developmental abnormalities.Īnders Møller, a scientist at the University of Paris-Sud, argues that since most mutations are harmful, it’s unlikely that a wolf capable of moving this far would be heavily impacted by radiation. “It’s certainly plausible,” he says, though there are not large populations of wolves immediately surrounding Chernobyl to spread these mutations to. These smaller animals also have the potential to spread radioactive contaminants to the environment through their movements, Mousseau notes.Ī JOURNEY INSIDE CHERNOBYL’S EXCLUSION ZONEīut so far, the picture is less clear in wolves, he says. Studies in other animals-mostly smaller ones like birds, rodents, and insects-show that Chernobyl radiation can cause mutations and ill health effects, says Tim Mousseau, a biologist at the University of South Carolina who was not involved in the recent study.Īnd work done in creatures such as barn swallows and voles suggests these mutations may be transferred to the next generation, he says. This epic trek also raises the question of whether or not the animals could spread mutations to wolf populations outside the area, he adds. ( See photos taken on illegal visits to Chernobyl’s dead zone.) “It came time for him to go out in the world and get a job,” Byrne jokes. “You’d expect that as a population of any animal, once it gets to a certain level, can only hold so many-so young animals will disperse.” “We know the wolf population in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is high,” says first author Michael Byrne, who studies animal movement and ecology at the University of Missouri. However, it provides further evidence that there are major populations of the animals in the Chernobyl region, Beasley says. Young male wolves are known to travel long distances in search of mates, so that in itself isn’t shocking, Beasley says. This is the first recorded long-distance wolf migration from within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to its surroundings, says study leader Jim Beasley, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Georgia in the United States. But one observation in the study, published in the European Journal of Wildlife Research, stuck out: A collared young male took a 250-mile-long trek out of the region, first heading east into Belarus, then into Ukraine, and eventually into Russia. In a recent experiment, researchers tracked 13 wolves using collars that could measure radiation, and found that, not unexpectedly, the animals encountered more radiation when they traveled through more contaminated areas. (Related: Animals Rule Chernobyl Three Decades After Nuclear Disaster) Epic Trek Many questions remain about the extent to which radiation causes mutations in various species, and whether these could be spread outside the zone. While clear of humans, animals are not free from radiation and its health effects, an active and at times controversial area of research. Studies have hinted that significant populations of European gray wolves and other large creatures live in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the roughly Rhode Island-sized, 1,000-square-mile section from which people were evacuated and can no longer live. Wild animals have free range around northern Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident, which spread radiation throughout the region in 1986.
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