It has been 33 years since the worst nuclear disaster in history, when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in Ukraine on April 26, 1986. No humans have been allowed to live there since, which has opened up an unexpected opportunity: wildlife is abundant.
Of course, whether they've actually thrived is under scrutiny. But without people, the animals' numbers have gone up dramatically and populations of some threatened species have grown.
An April 2016 study published by The Ecological Society of America reported the observation of 14 mammalian species in total within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), which spans 1,600 square miles and includes Ukraine and Belarus. The study said it provided the results of the first remote-camera scent-station survey conducted within the CEZ.
The animals included bison, boars, badgers, a proliferation of gray wolves, raccoons, domestic dogs (descendants of those left behind), and red foxes. A follow-up National Geographic study noted moose and horse tracks, songbirds, and swans paddling in the radioactive cooling pond.
The debate still rages in the scientific community about the effects of radiation on various species and whether the wildlife has survived despite it or because of the absence of humans. But one thing has not been disputed: the CEZ has become an unintentional wildlife sanctuary ripe for study.
