Animals in Chernobyl

I came across this recent news item and I though it was very interesting. It's about the wild animals, especially carnivores, living in the radioactive area around the exploded nuclear reactor of Chernobyl. The interesting thing is that the animals really thrive there and that the nuclear waste doesn't seem to have a big effect on the animals.
Here's the link to the article:
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Also some years ago I saw a documentary about this, though that was a little older when the explosion was more recent. There was for example a (abandoned) domastic cat family living in an ruined house. I can seem to find it right now...

Oh, such interesting thing :3
Once I saw the documentary about this too, but there were wolves as example.
It's very strange that radiation doesn't manipulate to organisms, but the fact is they feel nice in here.
As I knew, some species returned thither and their populations are stabilized.
Even more: I've heard that there are some people, who live near Chernobyl. They also haven't any problems with their health.
And it's a miracle, because there were many people, who died trying to minimize effects of radiation (it was a radioactive water at station, and when the catastrophe has happened, several mans poured the water out of basin. They dived into radioctive water to open the valve, and each of them died in 3 days after).

Yes, it is very interesting and strange indeed

As it says in the link to National Geographic, which Anne-Joke links to, it is interesting that even round-the-clock radiation is not as harmful as the presence of humans !!!!!
Also the radiation is now bad everywhere, and the wolves and horses move a lot around.

The fox eating bread is clearly not well, but they get old enough to breed, and deformed offspring just dies.

Perhaps the people Anasta mentions, live in a place in the area where radiation is not so high ?

SUSANNE wrote:

Perhaps the people Anasta mentions, live in a place in the area where radiation is not so high ?

I don't know about radiation level in this place, as I know it's located near Chernobyl. Maybe it's really not so dangerous as animals show us

I'm sure I read somewhere (National Geographic ?) that some older people have moved back too.

I guess with the animals, their life cycle is shorter so they aren't exposed for so long, if you see what I mean..........

It's surly not healthy to be daily exposed to a lot of radiation and right after the meltdown the effects of disaster could be seen in humans and animals alike; miscarriage and fysical abnormalities in newborns. Though a difference is that animals like wolfs don't live long enough to develop serious tumours.

Also the conclusion is that humans form a bigger threat to the animal population that radiation. But I'm not sure whenever this is also true for an individual animal...

I do like the look of a city inhabited by wild animals:
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There have been several articles about this topic with Chernobyl as well as documentaries (I've come across several). The same goes for other places too though, for example in Fukushima Japan something similar is going on. One man returned there to care for all the animals left behind, and although I'm not totally sure about the Animalia side of it the plant life there show signs of radiation effects (google Fukushima daisies). In this case, the animals are lucky that they have a place they can live and thrive in without people to cause our usual harm, and since they live shorter lives they don't suffer in the same ways people would (creating a sanctuary for wildlife whether it be animals or plants). The only truly unfortunate thing is that this is what it takes to create true havens for animals now, a disaster to keep us away and let nature take control again. But it is at its basic value, an intriguing science experiment.