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Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Despite Mutations, Chernobyl Wildlife Is Thriving


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A herd of Przewalski's horses roams Ukraine's Chernobyl "exclusion zone." These small horses were once found throughout the grassy plains of Mongolia (see map), but hunting and habitat loss caused the species to go extinct in the wild.

The lands near Chernobyl were blanketed by radiation two decades ago by the infamous nuclear reactor explosion. But a group of captive-bred horses released in the region in the 1990s, along with native wildlife, is now thriving there.

Photograph © Tim Mousseau