Scientists Have Made A Remarkable Discovery About Chernobyl's Wildlife

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now, on April twenty sixth, nineteen eighty six, the Chernobyl
nuclear reactor in the Northern Ukraine, which was then part
of the Soviet Union, exploded, sending a massive plume of
radiation into the sky. That plume, I know, headed towards Europe,
and in fact, I have some dear friends whose sister
was living in Sicily at the time and subsequently died

(00:20):
of cancer, and doctors attributed it to radiation because she
had such a rare form of cancer that they could
not put down to anything else. So we've all kind
of feared since then. And that area became instantly uninhabitable
and they put an exclusion zone around it. But what
that also represented was a great opportunity for scientists to

(00:43):
look at the native fauna and flora that was in
the area, and the University of South Carolina led the
charge and were allowed in to look at some of
the things that were going on. I will say that
there were some instant things that were complete destroyed. For example,
the huge pine trees died en mass. Over the next

(01:05):
twelve months, they just stopped happening. Couldn't survive. It could
not survive, and they left the building. So to speak.
The other animals that were really impacted were the stray
dogs that were around the plant because a lot of
the Chernobyl workers would feed them. They did not have
the adaptation skills to survive without the food being given

(01:26):
to them, and they died off very quickly. However, a
number of animals have done extraordinarily well, and that amazing,
so like it was not fit for humans to live there,
and yet and some animals have thrived. Yeah, so the
Mongolian wild horse has taken off and their population has grown,

(01:47):
same with mooses, boars, and wolves, and the wolves particularly
have been found in incredibly large numbers. Now scientists believe
that they may have actually been able to escape to
Belarus for a period of time, realized when it was
safe to come back. And now the population of those
wolves around Chernobyl is okay, yes, let's get to the mutants. Well,

(02:14):
the dogs. There are a number of stray dogs that
didn't go anywhere, and their bodies have changed. Scientists are
very slow to say that this was a direct result
of the radiation, but there are some animals because the
dog's life, you know, we're now into the third generation,
so they're only being able to compare back, their bodies
are longer, they're thinner. Yeah, what did you say, I

(02:40):
don't know if there's the cat dog. Yeah, well it
is interesting. Frogs, for example, have been able to evolve
much more quickly because their life span is shorter, and
there was like an equivalent of a green tree frog.
Now that frog is black black frogs, and the biologists
are theorizing that they were able to change. They were

(03:00):
able to mutate with their melanine the pigments in this game. No,
it's not, and it's helped them dissipate. The black color
has helped them dissipate and neutralize some of the surrounding radiation.
All right, So some of the dogs, for example, have
developed worse a lot of cataracts which were not actually

(03:24):
but they're living yea, and their lifespan has been reduced,
but they haven't been killed off. So they're mutating. What's
your what's your dream mutant animal? Like if you could,
if you could get it, some type of mutation animal
get I mean your cat dogs? That's option have you
got to That's a combo, that's a family who has

(03:44):
cat love, cat lovers and doggers. What's my dream I'd
like I'd like to have yapecially if you could get
a bear, right, because they're terrifying real bears, but has
like a dog's head and so it's like friendly like
a dog, but cuddly like a bear. What sort of
dog though, But the bear's claws will get you. One

(04:06):
we come to dog so it doesn't want to hurt you. See,
So it's not a bear. It's just got the big
soft body. But then it's got like a labrador head
on it, so it goes looks your face. What about that?
It is rather a big big like tiger or d
or something. But they'll eat you. But one that doesn't
dog tiger, dog tiger. See, I think slots are the

(04:29):
cutest things. Oh I know, slots. Tanda a panda. It
is absolutely miraculous to me that a panda has survived
extinction for as long as it has. Yes, okay, so
if we could have a panda somehow smart pan smart?
What's a smart like a kelpie? A dog? Everyone about

(04:49):
a dog like a panda? A leopard? Eat just really
cos it tears you up that night you've made a
nightmare at him with the longest clause and it looks
cute and Kenny after this, and it's terribly fast and

(05:10):
could rip you in a shreds