Rival packs of stray dogs roaming the Chernobyl nuclear disaster area in search of food may be evolving faster than other animals to survive in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
36 years after the world’s worst nuclear disaster, scientists are analyzing its effects on the semi-feral dogs that roam the decaying and abandoned buildings of the nuclear power plant and the surrounding radioactive ‘Red Forest’.
Amazingly, these wild dogs are still reproducing and surviving the harsh winters while they depend on scraps left by tourists, who are forbidden to touch them. .
Researchers say humans can learn a lot from the hard lives and survival of these 500 stray dogs, whose numbers have grown 36 years after a catastrophic accident and Soviet-era cover-up.
On April 26, 1986, an explosion and fire at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine released radiation into the atmosphere. The accident killed 30 workers, while the long-term death toll from radiation is estimated to be in the thousands.
These ghouls are believed to be descended from dogs that families left behind during emergency evacuations. They are also believed to have survived the actions of Soviet soldiers who were trying to kill the dogs to prevent the effects of radiation from spreading.
“Somehow two small populations of dogs managed to survive in this highly toxic environment,” said lead researcher Dr Norman Clyman.
Blood samples were collected from semi-feral dogs captured from around the power plant and from another hound in the nearby city of Chernobyl.
Despite sharing the genetic traits of the German Shepherd breed and being only 10 miles apart, these free-breeding dog populations were found to be completely isolated from each other.
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Analyzing the dogs’ DNA, the research team discovered 391 abnormal regions in their genomes that differed between the two breeds. Some of them indicate genetic repair, especially after the effects of radiation such as Chernobyl.
Scientists say more research is still needed to learn how decades of exposure to radiation have changed the animals’ genes and may have accelerated evolution.
They hope that future research will be able to detect genetic changes resulting from the effects of radiation and observe the adverse health effects of other nuclear or environmental disasters on animals and humans.
According to NC State’s Dr Matthew Breen: ‘The big question here is whether environmental destruction of this scale has a genetic effect on life in the region?
‘If we can figure out that the genetic changes that we saw in the dogs, that’s a reaction of the dogs’ genes to the effects that those dogs suffered. In this way we can understand how these dogs survived in such a hostile environment and what this might mean for any population, whether animal or human, that faces such conditions.’
The effects of radiation in Europe were first detected by Swedish authorities, forcing the Soviet authorities, who had been trying to cover up the tragedy, to admit it a few days later.
In 2017, a Czech animal-treating institution said that nearly half of the wild boars in the southwest of the country were infected with radiation and were deemed unsafe for human consumption.
These pigs eat an underground mushroom that absorbs radiation from the soil. Similar problems with radioactively infected wild animals have been reported in Austria and Germany.
The full study on Chernobyl dogs was published in the scientific journal Canine Medicine and Genetics.
