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What
happens to nature after a nuclear accident? And how does wildlife deal with the
world it inherits after human inhabitants have fled?
In 1986 a nuclear
meltdown at the infamous Chernobyl power plant in present-day Ukraine left miles
of land in radioactive ruins. Residents living in areas most contaminated by the
disaster were evacuated and relocated by government order, and a no-man's land
of our own making was left to its own devices. In the ensuing 25 years, forests,
marshes, fields and rivers reclaimed the land, reversing the effects of hundreds
of years of human development. And surprisingly, this exclusion zone, or "dead
zone," has become a kind of post-nuclear Eden, populated by beaver and bison,
horses and birds, fish and falcons -- and ruled by wolves.
Access to the
zone is now permitted, at least on a limited basis, and scientists are
monitoring the surviving wildlife in the area, trying to learn how the various
species are coping with the invisible blight of radiation. As the top predators
in this new wilderness, wolves best reflect the condition of the entire
ecosystem because if the wolves are doing well, the populations of their prey
must also be doing well. Accordingly, a key long-term study of the wolves has
been initiated to determine their health, their range, and their
numbers.
Radioactive Wolves examines the state of wildlife populations in
Chernobyl's exclusion zone, an area that, to this day, remains too radioactive
for human habitation.
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