Info: Wildlife / Animals of the zone
Since being virtually devoid of humans the zone has flourished into a 2,600 sq.Km wildlife sanctuary.
Horses run wild, and as much as I hate horses it is quite a beautiful sight.
Storks are prevalent, you see loads of them on the 20Km drive from the checkpoint to Chernobyl. They build these huge nests on top of telegraph poles, look out for them, you cant miss them!
At the time of the disaster all cattle were destroyed, much to the anguish of the local farmers although some farmyard animals have been reintroduced. When I went to visit the resettlers they had cats, dogs, chickens, a goat, and a pig called Boris - who the resettlers had great delight in comparing me too as we both have lip rings! But the animals seemed healthy and their milk and eggs are consumed daily.
Bird life is there, just a lot fewer birds than you’d expect. Worryingly you often see them popping in and out of holes in the rotting sarcophagus to Reactor-4!
Wild boar are known to hunt in the zone. I’ve never had the mis-fortune to run into one (or a pack) but have seen enough YouTube videos to know they can be quite vicious!
Although they’re not as bad as the packs of wild dogs and wolves that are at the top of the food chain in the zone. We were once cased by a pack (whilst we were driving in a large van luckily) They were relentless and chased us for what seemed ages, they must have been pretty hungry!
Once when we were round the Pripyat Café, which is quite deep in forest, we heard some rustlings. Our driver quickly pulled a knife and a telescopic sight which he used as a telescope to scan the undergrowth!
There’s an excellent feature length documentary solely on the Chernobyl wolves which is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK99dvJO5PY
At the opposite end of the food chain there are burrowing ticks, which are absolutely rife in Pripyat in the summer. If you tuck your trousers into your socks you look like a chav, but it’s better than having a radioactive tick burrowing through your flesh!
Also there are mosquitos. I was unfortunate to get bitten by one in my first hour in the zone, which freaked me out a bit, but I lived:
Most of the wildlife that you interact with is around the hotel in Chernobyl. If you sit outside on a warm summers evening you’ll see cats, hedgehogs, and even lizards (Apologies for the quality of photos, I’m not a wildlife photographer!
Hedgehog
Lizard (note the missing tail)
There are quite a few cats in the zone, most of which hang out where humans are concentrated. I cant imagine many cats lasting very long in the wild with wolves, foxes, and boar about.
Cat in 2010
Same cat in 2011 – Glad to see him alive, but I think he genuinely looks sadder.
There are some giant catfish in the cooling lakes, I’ve done a separate section on them here: Despite common misconception; they’re not massive because of mutation - but through lack of competition in the lakes so they have just kept growing. They are expected to live to a ripe old age of 80 years too.
I’ve heard rumours of bears, and even zebra being spotted in the zone, but don’t have any hard evidence of this.
Theres a great Wiki article on how animals were affected in the zone here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects#Plant_and_animal_health
Mutated dog from Chernobyl
Animals affected outside of the exclusion zone:
Of the 440,350 wild boar killed in the 2010 hunting season in Germany, over 1,000 were found to be contaminated with levels of radiation above the permitted limit of 600 becquerels per kilogram, due to residual radioactivity from Chernobyl. Germany has "banned wild game meat entirely, due to contamination linked to radioactive mushrooms"
The Norwegian Agricultural Authority reported that in 2009 a total of 18,000 livestock in Norway needed to be given uncontaminated feed for a period of time before slaughter in order to ensure that their meat was safe for human consumption. This was due to residual radioactivity from Chernobyl in the plants they graze on in the wild during the summer. 1,914 sheep needed to be given uncontaminated feed for a period of time before slaughter during 2012.
Restrictions on the movement of Sheep to contain radioactive contamination from Chernobyl were only lifted in the UK in 2012.
Horses run wild, and as much as I hate horses it is quite a beautiful sight.
Storks are prevalent, you see loads of them on the 20Km drive from the checkpoint to Chernobyl. They build these huge nests on top of telegraph poles, look out for them, you cant miss them!
At the time of the disaster all cattle were destroyed, much to the anguish of the local farmers although some farmyard animals have been reintroduced. When I went to visit the resettlers they had cats, dogs, chickens, a goat, and a pig called Boris - who the resettlers had great delight in comparing me too as we both have lip rings! But the animals seemed healthy and their milk and eggs are consumed daily.
Bird life is there, just a lot fewer birds than you’d expect. Worryingly you often see them popping in and out of holes in the rotting sarcophagus to Reactor-4!
Wild boar are known to hunt in the zone. I’ve never had the mis-fortune to run into one (or a pack) but have seen enough YouTube videos to know they can be quite vicious!
Although they’re not as bad as the packs of wild dogs and wolves that are at the top of the food chain in the zone. We were once cased by a pack (whilst we were driving in a large van luckily) They were relentless and chased us for what seemed ages, they must have been pretty hungry!
Once when we were round the Pripyat Café, which is quite deep in forest, we heard some rustlings. Our driver quickly pulled a knife and a telescopic sight which he used as a telescope to scan the undergrowth!
There’s an excellent feature length documentary solely on the Chernobyl wolves which is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK99dvJO5PY
At the opposite end of the food chain there are burrowing ticks, which are absolutely rife in Pripyat in the summer. If you tuck your trousers into your socks you look like a chav, but it’s better than having a radioactive tick burrowing through your flesh!
Also there are mosquitos. I was unfortunate to get bitten by one in my first hour in the zone, which freaked me out a bit, but I lived:
Most of the wildlife that you interact with is around the hotel in Chernobyl. If you sit outside on a warm summers evening you’ll see cats, hedgehogs, and even lizards (Apologies for the quality of photos, I’m not a wildlife photographer!
Hedgehog
Lizard (note the missing tail)
There are quite a few cats in the zone, most of which hang out where humans are concentrated. I cant imagine many cats lasting very long in the wild with wolves, foxes, and boar about.
Cat in 2010
Same cat in 2011 – Glad to see him alive, but I think he genuinely looks sadder.
There are some giant catfish in the cooling lakes, I’ve done a separate section on them here: Despite common misconception; they’re not massive because of mutation - but through lack of competition in the lakes so they have just kept growing. They are expected to live to a ripe old age of 80 years too.
I’ve heard rumours of bears, and even zebra being spotted in the zone, but don’t have any hard evidence of this.
Theres a great Wiki article on how animals were affected in the zone here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster_effects#Plant_and_animal_health
Mutated dog from Chernobyl
Animals affected outside of the exclusion zone:
Of the 440,350 wild boar killed in the 2010 hunting season in Germany, over 1,000 were found to be contaminated with levels of radiation above the permitted limit of 600 becquerels per kilogram, due to residual radioactivity from Chernobyl. Germany has "banned wild game meat entirely, due to contamination linked to radioactive mushrooms"
The Norwegian Agricultural Authority reported that in 2009 a total of 18,000 livestock in Norway needed to be given uncontaminated feed for a period of time before slaughter in order to ensure that their meat was safe for human consumption. This was due to residual radioactivity from Chernobyl in the plants they graze on in the wild during the summer. 1,914 sheep needed to be given uncontaminated feed for a period of time before slaughter during 2012.
Restrictions on the movement of Sheep to contain radioactive contamination from Chernobyl were only lifted in the UK in 2012.
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