Chernobyl full of life as wildlife reoccupies a radioactive landscape

6 months ago by FTonsilStones to c/upliftingnews

Wolves, bears and lynx have rebounded in the radioactive landscape, along with a rare breed of horses native to Mongolia. Scientists say it shows nature’s ability to recover when human activity is removed.

ParadoxSeahorse 49 points 6 months ago

Reassuring that the planet will be ok after

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homes 22 points 6 months ago

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aeronmelon -1 points 6 months ago

If humanity dies because of what humans did, and the rest of nature manages to continue on, I posit that humans are not classified as life.

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yakko 13 points 6 months ago

This is a brave and hilarious take, you're wrong but I'm giving you points for style

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bjoern_tantau 11 points 6 months ago

I mean, there are probably a ton of species that led to their own demise. The great oxygenation comes to my mind, but I bet there are many smaller events as well.

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Schmoo 2 points 6 months ago

Plenty of species self-destruct. The difference with humans is that we're aware of our own self-destruction and are continuing it anyway.

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NotEasyBeingGreen 24 points 6 months ago

My understanding was that radiation was harmful to wildlife, but less harmful than humans. So not exactly uplifting....

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quickenparalysespunk 13 points 6 months ago

THIS!

some people blindly react to everything "nature" or "non-humans" as purely good...

without thinking that maybe the animals moving to Chernobyl area might not be living their best lives, because the human-generated radiation is still there...

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Tollana1234567 4 points 6 months ago

its barely negligible apparently. the only danger is the red forest, and truffle,fungi that grow that which hyperaccumulates the radioisoptopes, they found the wild boars had hight amounts of those isotopes, they couldnt figuer it out until they found them eating the fungi.

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prex 1 point 5 months ago

Hope those boars don't shit radiation everywhere.

Edit: Still pretty cool information, thanks.

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Cethin 1 point 6 months ago

Really, the risk of radiation is pretty damn low. There are some hot spots, and maybe you'd find a hot piece of material (probably not) but it's mostly just wilderness that has restricted access. It's not dangerously radioactive. Even in Pripyt it's mostly fine. You can even get close to the destroyed reactor and be OK. Keep in mind, the last reactor at Chernobyl only stopped operating in 2000.

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SaveTheTuaHawk 17 points 6 months ago

there are spots on this planet with naturally high radiation levels similar to Chernobyl area. The threat is really to longer lived creatures like humans.

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shiv 13 points 6 months ago

Reminds me of the 38th parallel in between North/South Korea. There has been a resurgence of rare wildlife there because no humans fuck with it.

Edit: here is an article about it

https://www.theguardian.com/...

"The landmines are doing more for conservation than anyone..." Kim Seung-ho

Pictured: the threatened asianic black bear.

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NotASharkInAManSuit 10 points 6 months ago

Soon, Deathclaws, soon…

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yum_burnt_toast 9 points 6 months ago

if anyone is interested in more stories like this i definitely recommend reading "islands of abandonment" by cal flyn, which also has a chapter on chernobyl. stories of natural recovery in areas that humans no longer occupy.

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Tollana1234567 8 points 6 months ago

its the same with the DMZ in korea, the area where its heavily mined and forbidden to enter tigers, and other animals thrived there.

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zabadoh 3 points 6 months ago

Humans demand a higher quality of life than animals.

We don't get to see the bears, wolves, horses etc prematurely dying of cancer and mutations, but presumably their ability to reproduce happens before the radiation and mutations overcome their bodies.

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LePoisson 2 points 6 months ago

presumably their ability to reproduce happens before the radiation and mutations overcome their bodies.

Good ole fashioned evolution baby

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qkall 3 points 6 months ago

@FTonsilStones we're all just biding time for the trees

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t_berium 1 point 6 months ago

Beware of the Snorks, though

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Malyca 1 point 6 months ago

I wonder if those are those horses that were thought to be extinct, but it turned out they're still around.

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Tollana1234567 1 point 6 months ago

those are descended from domesticated horses(botai horses which is seperate from the current well know horses) not a true wild species, WIld horse species are pratically extinct since the last ice age, and they evolved in north america. other equine species do still exist like oangers, and zebras. its the prewelzakis horse.

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ygurin 1 point 6 months ago

Saw a huge Moose in Chernobyl once...

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Teppichbrand 2 points 6 months ago

Everyone should! Let's all book trips to the place with no humans and look at it, so we can take pictures and tell more people about it. It's so calming and relaxing, we should go there more often. Maybe someone could sell some merch...

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ygurin 1 point 6 months ago

Honestly that is exacting how it went down, we all got handheld Geiger meters. On the entrance checkpoint there was a bunch of stalker (the game) merch.

The Chernobyl tours are an actual thing. You don't get to wonder by yourself though, for obvious reasons. But you do get to see nature reclaiming the city.

https://www.chernobyl-tour.com/english/

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skoell13 1 point 6 months ago

Interesting video regarding the topic: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j4OKo0VpoeM

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