When you think about a place to help endangered species recover, a nuclear disaster zone might not be your first thought. However, Przewalski’s horses have found a surprising sanctuary in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
On April 26, 1986, a catastrophic nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. A flawed reactor design and poorly trained staff led to an explosion in Reactor 4, releasing radioactive material far exceeding the levels from the Hiroshima bombing. While you might expect this to have wiped out all nearby wildlife, some species have surprisingly thrived in the aftermath.
Przewalski’s horses, considered the last truly wild horses, were introduced to the Chernobyl area in 1998. Their population has since grown from about 30 to over 200. This unexpected biodiversity boost is due to the absence of human interference, allowing various animals like moose, deer, wolves, and beavers to flourish.
While constant low-level radiation isn’t ideal, it seems less harmful than human activities like habitat destruction and hunting. Wolves, for example, benefit from their ability to roam widely, reducing their radiation exposure. The wolf population density in Chernobyl is even higher than in Yellowstone National Park.
There’s ongoing debate about how harmful radiation is compared to other environmental factors. Some studies, like a 2009 paper in Biology Letters, show reduced insect and spider populations in high-radiation areas. Similarly, a 2011 study found increased genetic mutations in Chernobyl’s plants and animals.
In 2018, scientist Michael Byrne tracked a wolf traveling far from the exclusion zone, raising questions about whether Chernobyl’s mutations could spread to other populations. However, there’s no evidence of bizarre mutations like three-eyed fish. Large catfish in the area are simply big, not mutated giants.
Radiation’s most severe impacts were immediate, with about 30 people dying shortly after the explosion. Long-term effects, like increased thyroid cancer rates, are still debated. Some radioactive isotopes have decayed, reducing the area’s danger over time.
Voles, small rodents that eat mushrooms, show radiation’s harmful effects, such as reduced fertility and higher cataract rates. Birds in high-radiation areas exhibit mutations like partial albinism and smaller brains, affecting species diversity.
The exclusion zone is also home to many feral dogs, descendants of pets left behind after the disaster. Efforts to control their population have been challenging, but organizations like the Clean Future Fund provide medical care and sterilization. Some dogs have even been adopted.
Surprisingly, some people, known as “samosely” or self-settlers, live in the exclusion zone. Mostly seniors who lived there before the disaster, they weigh the risks of radiation against cultural and personal reasons for staying.
The story of Chernobyl’s animals is complex, showing both resilience and vulnerability. While the area isn’t a paradise, it’s not the wasteland many imagine. The interplay between nature and human history continues to shape this unique environment.
Investigate the history and current status of Przewalski’s horses. Create a presentation that explores their introduction to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, their population growth, and the factors contributing to their survival. Share your findings with the class.
Participate in a class debate about the effects of radiation on wildlife versus human activities like habitat destruction. Use evidence from studies mentioned in the article to support your arguments. Consider both the positive and negative impacts on the ecosystem.
Write a short story from the perspective of an animal living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Describe its daily challenges and interactions with the environment, incorporating facts from the article. Share your story with your peers for feedback.
Conduct a research project on genetic mutations in wildlife, focusing on examples from Chernobyl. Create a visual display or infographic that explains how radiation affects genetic material and the potential long-term consequences for animal populations.
Imagine you are a journalist interviewing a “samosely” living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Develop a list of questions to ask about their experiences, reasons for staying, and views on the wildlife around them. Role-play the interview with a classmate.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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If you went looking for a place to replenish the dwindling numbers of an almost extinct species, the areas surrounding a nuclear disaster probably wouldn’t be your first choice. Yet, Przewalski’s horses have found a place to do just that—inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, and this is The List Show.
The early morning of April 26, 1986, saw what is often considered the worst nuclear disaster in human history. A faulty design and improperly trained workers were two of the factors that led to an explosion in Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The total amount of radioactive material eventually released was hundreds of times higher than that seen in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Scientists are still reaching conclusions about the long-term impacts of the disaster, but rather than eliminating all wildlife in the vicinity, as you might expect, the tragedy has, in some ways, created conditions for some fauna to thrive.
Today, I’m sharing some surprising facts about the animals of Chernobyl. I’ll talk about how these animals might not look like what you’d expect and share the good, like those horses; the bad, like decimated insect populations; and the cuddly—who wants to adopt a Chernobyl puppy? Let’s get started.
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Institute called Przewalski’s horses the last truly wild horse. Other species sometimes referred to as wild, like those you might find on Assateague Island National Seashore in the United States, are properly classified as feral domestic horses. They descend from horses that escaped domestication. Whether Przewalski’s horses can truly be called a wild species or subspecies is a matter of some debate. However, it is clear that a once large population that ranged across large areas of Asia and Europe was eventually reduced to almost nothing. When Lee Boyd and Catherine A. helped edit a book about the animal in 1994, the most recent wild setting had occurred in the late 1960s, leading the authors to declare them extinct in the wild.
In 1998, around 30 of the horses were released in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. In the years since, that population has increased to more than 200. Some of the original animals released into the area lived for decades, as seen on camera traps. They also reproduced in the wild, leading to new generations. As the head of the scientific department of the Chernobyl Nature Reserve told Phys.org, paradoxically, this is a unique opportunity to preserve biodiversity.
In the case of Przewalski’s horses, the animals were introduced years after the disaster at Reactor 4. According to biologist Jim Beasley, the population of large mammals in the exclusion zone has surpassed the numbers found before the near meltdown. With limited human activity in the area for decades, it resembles scenes from a disaster movie where nature starts to retake a city. Moose, deer, wolves, and beavers are just some of the species that have found a happy home in the radioactive area.
A constant dose of low-level radiation obviously isn’t beneficial, but it may be the case for some animals that it isn’t harmful enough to outweigh the pre-disaster impact of human beings encroaching on habitats and actively hunting wildlife. Wolves, in particular, may benefit from their propensity to travel great distances, giving them the opportunity to dilute the amount of radiation consumed through hunting. Beasley estimated the population density of the Chernobyl wolves to be significantly higher than that found in America’s Yellowstone National Park.
As Beasley sees it, humans have been removed from the system, which greatly overshadows any potential radiation effects. However, there isn’t universal consensus that this is correct. No one is arguing that radiation is good for you, but there’s disagreement over how harmful particular levels are compared to other environmental factors. It may depend on which species you’re focusing on.
A 2009 paper in Biology Letters pointed to severely reduced insect and spider populations two decades after the nuclear disaster, a trend that was particularly pronounced in areas with the highest levels of radiation. Similar effects were seen in the aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. A 2011 paper published in Biological Conservation estimated that plants and animals in the area had up to 20 times the rate of genetic mutations compared to species not subjected to these high levels of radiation.
In 2018, scientist Michael Byrne tracked a wolf traveling a great distance, ultimately outside of the exclusion zone, and wondered whether the disproportionately high number of mutations in the Chernobyl animals could be passed on to other populations. Byrne was even-handed in his speculation, stating that while he didn’t want to say that animals from Chernobyl are contaminating the world, it is something to consider.
That doesn’t mean there are three-eyed fish or two-headed cows in the exclusion zone, though. In 2016, footage of some very large catfish in the cooling pond of the Chernobyl reactor spread online, leading some to conclude that radiation had supercharged the fish’s growth. It’s doubtful that the mutations caused by radiation would lead to a larger overall size; these types of mutations generally decrease an animal’s fitness and ability to grow to full size.
The explanation for the large catfish was actually quite simple—some fish are just really big. It seems that the most dramatic genetic mutations occurred immediately after the explosion at Reactor 4, consistent with what we’ve observed in human beings. About 30 people died within months of the original explosion, primarily from acute radiation syndrome. Longer-term deaths related to the disaster are a matter of considerable debate, though there is evidence that thyroid cancer rates were elevated in people, especially children exposed to Chernobyl’s radiation, possibly through contaminated food.
Perhaps surprisingly, a study published in the journal Science showed that parents who experienced genetic mutations as a result of radiation exposure did not pass those mutations onto their children. It makes sense that the biggest impacts would be felt in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, given how radiation works over the years. Some of the potentially harmful radionuclides released by the blast have decayed, presumably making the area less dangerous to live in.
Uncontrolled iodine-131 exposure, for example, is known to increase the risk of thyroid disease, including cancer, but it has a half-life of only eight days and would have basically disappeared from the zone within a few months. Other radioactive isotopes are still present in significant quantities. Cesium-137, for example, has a half-life of over 30 years, and some animals are disproportionately affected. One risk factor is an animal’s diet. Voles, for example, are a type of small rodent that likes to eat a lot of mushrooms. Unfortunately, some mushroom species are particularly good at concentrating radiation, passing on the harmful material to hungry voles.
Sure enough, voles seem to demonstrate the harmful effects of radiation in several ways. The critters were shown to be less fertile in areas with higher concentrations of radiation, with a corresponding drop in overall populations. They were also shown to have higher rates of cataracts than animals from outside the exclusion zone. Barn swallows in the area were shown to demonstrate elevated levels of partial albinism, presumably a result of radiation-related genetic mutations. Areas with higher levels of radiation also seemingly gave rise to bird populations with smaller brains, less viable sperm, and decreased species diversity and abundance.
So, the story of Chernobyl’s animals isn’t a simple one of the land returning to some kind of paradise, but it also isn’t the barren wasteland you might have imagined before starting this video. In addition to all the wild animals we’ve discussed, the exclusion zone is also home to hundreds of feral dogs—descendants of pets that were sadly abandoned in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
At one point, authorities tried to control the stray populations, but when that didn’t work, the canine populations grew unchecked for a number of years. Now, an organization called the Clean Future Fund helps conduct sterilization campaigns in the area. They also provide medical care, vaccinations, and even food to the Chernobyl dogs and cats. Back in 2018 and 2019, a number of dogs were identified as having safe levels of radiation, and a few dozen were actually adopted.
It seems that the combination of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the organization’s efforts, though they continue to do occasional work in the exclusion zone. Some of the Chernobyl dogs have been adopted by people who themselves live in the exclusion zone.
This video was mostly about non-human animals, but I wanted to end on the most surprising thing I found while researching this script. Despite laws ostensibly prohibiting it, there are actually a number of human beings living in the exclusion zone, some with tacit permission from authorities. These residents are called “samosely” or self-settlers. They are mostly seniors, mostly women, and mostly lived in the area before the disaster. For various reasons, the samosely have decided that the potential risks of radiation are outweighed by other considerations—financial, cultural, and geopolitical—that called them to the area.
That’s it for this episode of The List Show. If there’s another interesting part of the world that we should make a list about, tell us about it in the comments below. Thanks for watching!
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This version removes any potentially sensitive or inappropriate language while maintaining the core information and context of the original transcript.
Animals – Multicellular organisms that form the biological kingdom Animalia, characterized by their ability to move, consume organic material, and respond to their environment. – In biology class, we studied how different animals adapt to their environments to survive.
Biodiversity – The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem, often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. – The Amazon rainforest is known for its incredible biodiversity, hosting thousands of species of plants and animals.
Radiation – Energy that comes from a source and travels through space, which can have significant effects on living organisms, including causing mutations. – Scientists are studying the effects of radiation on cells to understand how it can lead to cancer.
Mutations – Changes in the DNA sequence of a cell’s genome, which can lead to variations in traits and sometimes result in new characteristics in organisms. – Mutations in certain genes can increase an organism’s ability to survive in changing environments.
Recovery – The process of restoring an ecosystem or population to a healthy state after it has been damaged or depleted. – Conservation efforts have led to the recovery of the bald eagle population in North America.
Wildlife – Animals that live and grow in natural conditions, not domesticated or cultivated by humans. – Protecting wildlife is crucial for maintaining ecological balance and biodiversity.
Habitat – The natural environment in which a particular species of plant or animal lives, which provides the necessary conditions for life and growth. – Deforestation is a major threat to the habitat of many species, leading to a decline in biodiversity.
Environmental – Relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition. – Environmental studies focus on understanding how human actions affect ecosystems and finding ways to mitigate negative impacts.
Species – A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding, classified as the basic unit of biological classification. – The discovery of a new species of frog in the rainforest highlights the importance of preserving these unique ecosystems.
Impact – The effect or influence of one thing on another, particularly in the context of environmental changes or human activities on ecosystems. – The impact of climate change on polar bear populations is a growing concern for conservationists.
